CHAPTER 1
As soon as the sun rises in Nainital, the sun is radiating its gentle rays, and a pleasant morning was flourishing. But the morning of Inspector Vinod Gupta used to fall at four o'clock in the morning before sunrise. Throughout the police department, Guptaji was praised for his precise routine and honesty. Getting up at four in the morning to go for a walk and then getting ready when coming back and recite the puja of God and reach Jawahar police station at exactly nine o'clock. To this day there has been no change in this rule. Even today, according to the same rule, Guptaji reaches the lake with a small stick in his hand and reaches his favourite Chhotu's tea stall as usual.
"Welcome Guptaji"
"Give me my special “apudi tea”, and chhotu laughs like every day” Uncle you have also given this tea a the weird name "apudi tea"
"Hey brother there is a little story of our old ancestors behind this"
"What, a story behind tea name, uncle? Tell me the story of tea. As a tea spot’s owner, I must know such a story."
"Brother, in the old days almost all of them lived in a joint family. And unlike today, if there are two children in the house, then the parents will be satisfied. At first, it was a common thing to have five or six children in everyone's house. And average income is very law to fulfill a month's survival but mothers have to give the best as possible to their children."
"But where did the tea come from?"
"Oh dear, you are always hurrying, be patient! Your tea will also come."
"Most of the time, the mother gets up early in the house, so she puts tea for herself, such tea had no water, made with only milk, he just puts it for herself, it is called “Apudi tea”, which is just for herself, then Dad gets up, so she puts his tea, it is called “Bapudi tea” and Then children wakes up she put tea for them, so it is called “Jigudi tea” (Jugudi tea is for the whole world). As the amount of water in the milk increases as the tea is made, now you understand what “Apudi tea” is?"
"Wow, uncle “Apudi”, “Bapudi” and “Jigudi” had fun today."
"Here's your Apudi tea and your newspaper."
"Dear Chhotu, without drinking your tea, the day doesn't seem to rise, and sipping my tea blows away my morning cold.
"I'll see you tomorrow, keep it ready tomorrow."
***
From there, he comes home, gets ready again according to the same rules, and goes straight to the police station. When he reaches a station, like Guptaji the whole police station comes alive. As he sits in his chair, the phone on the table rings.
"Hello, Jawahar Police Station?"
"Sir, come soon my madam has been murdered." As soon as the phone rang, Mangu started speaking in a terrified voice.
"Hey brother, first calm down, talk in peace, who are you? where are you from? Give your address, we will get there immediately"
"Sir, my self Mangu Dudhwala, someone has murdered my madam"
"Who is your madam?"
"The principal of Anand Niketan School is my Madam, her name is Geeta madam."
"Okay, you calm down, give me your address and we'll get there."
"Sir, I am at Madam's house, I have called from there only, and he lives in bungalow number ten in Santiniketan Society, come soon sir"
"Okay, you just stay there and don't interrupt anyone, listen carefully, don't interrupt anyone marks my word"
"Yes sir, madam lives alone; there is no one here except me"
"OK, we're coming"
"As soon as he put down the phone, sub constable Nathuram came and stood at Guptaji's table. He had been working with Guptaji for years, so when he heard Guptaji talking on the phone, he immediately understood that something was wrong."
"Nathu, take the car, we have to go to Santiniketan Society soon," he said and both got into a jeep parked outside the stations and Nathuram kills the jeep towards Santiniketan.
Thoughts were running through Guptaji's mind, in a small town like Nainital, if a phone call came in the morning, someone's house was burglarized or there was an accident while driving in a hurry in the morning, but it was a little strange to come for murder. And not even the murder of a common man, but the principle of the best school in Nainital. This needs to be a big deal.
In ten minutes, Guptaji's car crossed the gate of the Santiniketan bungalow and came in. Madame's Bungalow was the last, so different from all. There was open space around the bungalow. Its door seemed to be made of ordinary wooden planks. Guptaji started inspecting bungalow from getting out of the jeep, got into the job of the police, Guptaji got into the habit of inspecting everything. As he entered, he saw a path across the main porch to the front door, a small two-seater swing in the garden on the left, and the inspector's gaze fell on the folded newspaper in front of it, still out of newspaper. Fallen, meaning no one seems to have opened the door since morning, on the right was a small garden-like atmosphere, with flowers in small pots adorning it. Guptaji took a look at the outside of the house as he walked and reached straight to the main door of the house, where Mangu was waiting for him.
"Sir, I called you, look, someone has murdered our madam, and he says crying."
"Guptaji puts his hand on his shoulder and tells him to calm down."
"Shut up first, and tell me in detail, what happened?"
"Sir, I came to Madam's house to give milk, as usual. I came to the door and rang the bell but many times happen Madame did not open the door at first call. So I Stood up but after a long time the madam did not come, so I rang the bell again two or three times, but she did not open the door, so I went to the back door and I saw that the door was open, I was surprised So I went inside and check the drawing-room and saw no one at there, so I looked in the kitchen, madam was lying on the ground and there was blood all around her head, I was shocked to see this, So I came into the drawing-room and called you right away. "
"You didn't say anything to the neighbors and no one came to the house except you?"
"No, sir you refused, so I was just standing outside"
"Okay, you just stand here and we'll go in and see."
As soon as Inspector Guptaji entered through the main door, a C-shaped sofa set was placed on the left side, with a small round table and a few magazines lying in the middle on that, with a forty-two inch TV on the front wall of the sofa. , A ladder was going up behind the wall of the TV, and in front of the ladder was a large dining table that could seat six people and the wall behind it looked like a kitchen, what was going on inside the kitchen from the drawing-room Unable to be seen, There was a bathroom in front of the kitchen and a washbasin next to it, there was a small passage next to the washbasin, at the end of the passage the back door of the house was visible, which was now open. A fridge was visible in front of the entrance to the kitchen and a platform was started next to it. There was a gas stove on it, and a cup was prepared and placed in front of the stove. And just in front of the platform lay Gitaben's corpse, in which someone had shot her right in the middle of the forehead, and blood came out of it and froze on his nose. At first glance, the murder seemed to have taken place at night, so by morning the blood had frozen and turned black. After examining the corpse, Guptaji goes upstairs. Upon reaching the top, two rooms appear, the doors of which were smashed, and everything in the room was scattered, the closets of the room were open, at first glance it seemed as if someone had searched the room. He comes down and tells Nathuram to call the forensic team, and then he comes out and comes with Mangu and stands up.
"Madame has no relatives?"
"No, sir, I have been coming to Madam's house to give milk for so many years, I have not seen anyone coming till today, yes, Rashmi used to come on summer vacation. For madam school was everything."
"Who is Rashmi?"
"Rashmi is in Madam's school; Madam treats her like her own daughter, stays in the hostel while school is on and comes here to stay with Madam on vacation."
"Nathuram, you take Mangu's statement and let him go, and call the control team and call the other team and put them to work. Let's interrogate the neighbors living nearby until the second team arrives."
"But inquiries from neighbors did not reveal anything special."
After a while, another team came so Guptaji and Nathuram got out in their jeep.
On the way, Guptaji asks Nathuram to take the jeep to Anand Niketan School.
***
As soon as the recess bell rings in the school, all the students come out of the class, Rashmi and Anita also leave the class, and head straight towards the canteen on the ground floor, when they come down to the ground floor The jeep appears to become inside the school's main entrance. Everyone is surprised to see a police car at school. Getting out of the jeep, Inspector Guptaji goes straight to the principal's office.
“Who is your vice-principal? And where I can find him?” Guptaji asks a Pyun quietly in a soft voice,
"Sir, this is our Santosh sir, he is the vice-principal of our school."
Santosh Sir, like everyone else, is seen coming towards his office after seeing the police vehicle.
"Mr Santosh, my name is Inspector Vinod Gupta, I want to give you some bad news, and a little talk, that's why I have to come here."
"Yes, yes, why not, come and sit in my office and talk."
"As soon as he sits in his office, Guptaji starts talking,
"You must know that your principal Madam did not come to school today."
"When I came to school I found out that Madame had not come yet."
"Did anyone tell you about today's holiday?" generally she inform earlier when she will go for a holiday, but she did not report anything for today's holiday, I was also surprised so I came and called him, but he did not pick up the phone, so I thought that maybe his health is worse, so I was thinking of finishing some work and going to his house, that's all I met in front of you."
"We just came from his house; your madam has been murdered"
"What are you talking about, Inspector?" Santosh Sir's mouth stays open with surprise”
"But how does that happen? How can someone kill Gita Madam? She was a very good person, how can one do to kill a good woman like her"
"Yes, you are right, Mangu, who came to her house this morning to give milk, called the police and informed us that when he went to give milk, despite ringing the bell several times, Madame did not open the door, so he went back to knock on the back door." There, the door was open and he went inside and saw that Madame's body had fallen in the kitchen. So he called us from Madam's house so we came and checked, from there it was found out that Madam had no other relatives, so we came to meet you at school. "
"Do you doubt anyone?" Do you remember that madam quarreled with someone?
"No, Guptaji, I still can't believe that someone killed Madam, he was a very loving person."
Guptaji leaves his office after saying "OK, Santoshji, let's meet tomorrow".
In a few minutes, the whole thing spreads by air in the school. Rashmi, who was sitting in the canteen, was approached by a friend and told that her madam had been murdered. Rashmi was shocked to hear this and fainted right there.
***
Ever since Rashmi was young, she has been studying at Anand Niketan Boarding School. She was an orphan so Madame raised her, and this school was her home. Gita Madam treated her like her own daughter, and Rashmi also treated Madam as her mother. When all the boys went home on summer vacation, she stayed with Madame. Rashmi was already very good at teaching, and no one in the whole school could match her in painting. Rashmi didn't even remember when she came here and who put her here. He was seventeen years old but no day Madame never let him feel like an orphan. That is why when she got the news that someone had shot and killed the same madam in her, she could not bear the shock and fainted right there.
***
Rashmi is sitting on a sofa playing with her toys. A woman sitting next to him is reading a book, he sees herself as a little five-year-old girl, and she doesn't understand what is happening. She can't see his face properly, she was blurry, she rubs his eyes but it doesn't matter, she still looks blurry, she tries to call the woman sitting next to him. The book is so deeply read that she doesn't even look at Rashmi, she finally starts crying loudly as she is bored, so the woman tries to silence Rashmi by placing the book on the table, Rashmi cries loudly after seeing the blur Seems. Eventually, the woman gets up and goes to the kitchen. As soon as she went into the kitchen, Rashmi heard a loud ear-splitting sound. Hearing this, Rashmi became terrified and got up from the sofa and walked towards the kitchen. As she walks near the kitchen, she sees the open door of the fridge. Going a little further, the woman is lying down in front of the platform, and her face is covered with blood, blood is all around, Rashmi is terrified to see this. She tries to shout, but from above her throat. The sound doesn't come out and he faints right there.
Suddenly Rashmi’s eyes open, and she booms loudly, and realizing that she was in her bed, looking around for a while she feels like she had a dream. Hearing her scream, her friend Anita, who was lying on the bed next to her, wakes up in a daze and looks in front of Rashmi, Rashmi's whole body is sweating. She is staring blankly in front of Anita as if she is seeing the same bloodied corpse in his dreams.
"Rashmi you hear me? What happened? Are you fine? Anita pats her cheek slowly and turns her hand slowly on her back"
After a while Rashmi slowly turns the key, so he hugs Anita tightly and starts crying loudly.
"What happen Rashmi?" Did you have a bad dream? ”
"Yes Anita, it was a nightmare"
"What did you see in the dream?" Anita asked,
"I saw that I was in the form of a small five-year-old girl. I was in a big bungalow. On that bungalow, I saw a sign saying 'Matrusadan'. A woman is sitting next to me, but I can't see her face. It looked dim. I was sitting on the sofa playing with toys, then crying loudly, so the woman gets up and goes to the kitchen, and in a few moments a loud noise is heard, I get up and go to the kitchen to see the woman in the kitchen. She was lying on the ground near the platform and was shot right in the middle of her forehead, and blood appeared all around. Seeing that, I am terrified and I don't know whether I am going to faint there or not, but I am just waking up.
"Rashmi, you don't find it strange! Our madam was also shot in the middle of the forehead and killed, and you can see it even in your dreams today.
"I feel like I've been thinking about madam all day and at bedtime, so maybe I saw the same thing in my dreams. But why was I so young in my dreams, and I didn't understand anything about the house called "Matrusadan"?"
"It was a dream Rashmi, the dream is over, now go to sleep peacefully."
"After saying this, Anita gets up to go to her bed, but Rashmi holds her hand. Please sleep next to me, Anita. That face does not move from my brain. I am very scared.
"Okay, let's go to sleep here with you, and Rashmi goes to sleep with Anita.
***
Anita was not there when Rashmi woke up in the morning. Rashmi looks around the room, the bathroom door was also open, and so she wasn't even in the bathroom. It means she gets ready and goes to school. Rashmi felt that Anita might not have woken me up because of sleeping late at night, if she woke up early like the rest of the day, she would wake me up too. Rashmi is sitting in the plug. Looking out the window, it seems that the sun becoming brighter. She looked at the clock, it was eleven o'clock, so the school was on, and she laughed, so there was no point in going to school. And yet she was not in the mood to go to school today. The rest of her friends got ready and went to school, so today she was alone at the hostel.
His hostel building was a large two-story building with beautiful paintings on the outside walls. These pictures were also drawn by Rashmi. Ever since she was little she has been very fond of drawing. Whenever she had time, she would draw on the walls of the hostel. The rest of her friends were in a hurry to come home from school and play after finishing their homework and Rashmi was in a hurry to draw pictures. The hostel had a large hall downstairs with lots of beds and tables and chairs. Students up to the ninth standard lived there. Next to each bed were a small table, a chair, and a closet. Rashmi and Anita also grew up there till the ninth standard. Upstairs was Madame Matron's room with a long line of many other rooms. In which students from standard ten to twelve lived. Since standard ten to twelve is an important year for teaching, they were given a separate room so that the students could concentrate on their studies and shape their future. Rashmi and Anita's room was the last. Anita and Rashmi grew up with childhood frost; Rashmi often went to her home for summer vacation. Rashmi liked her room very much because only her room had a balcony, as her room was the last. Rashmi and Anita sit on the balcony and talk about the whole world. Rashmi would draw her pictures sitting there, while Rashmi would draw her pictures Anita would listen to songs. Mostly Rashmi would sit on the balcony and draw pictures with the evening sun. Only an artist can understand the feeling of drawing while sitting with the evening breeze.
Rashmi got up and opened the door of the balcony and the rays of the morning sun spread across the room and with it a jolt of cold air blew into Rashmi's room. He enjoys the morning and goes to the bathroom to freshen up. When she takes a bath with her favourite Mogra soap, the smell of blood also disappears in the dreams seen at night along with the fragrance of Mogra. Wearing a light purple dress, she goes to have breakfast in the canteen. Even Mohankaka in the canteen sees Rashmi's sad face and realizes how sad she is.
"How do you feel now, son? Are you in good health now?"
“Yes, uncle feels better now. “
There is a strange sadness in the school today. The school, which was buzzing with the murmurs and murmurs of the children, seemed to be as calm as a mountain today. Rashmi also finishes breakfast and reaches the school grounds. The whole field was full of students. All the students and teachers of the school were present in front of the photos of Madam. There was sadness in everyone's eyes because her madam's temperament was so gentle that no one remembered that she had ever had a quarrel with anyone or had a fight with anyone. When a teacher went to complain to a student, She also explained to them with love and asked the teacher to treat them with love. No one can believe that such a madam kills so brutally that no human comes.
While the silence was going on, Inspector Gupta was standing at the edge of the ground. He waits until the silence is over and then he meets Santosh Sir.
Seeing them moving towards Santosh Sir's office, Rashmi runs to him.
"Good morning sir."
"Good Morning Rashmi"
"Nothing found out, who killed madam?" Tears well up in her eyes she speaks and asks for satisfaction.
"Rashmi, Don't be so sad, Inspector Gupta is doing his job, he will find the killer soon, he will push him behind bars," says Santosh sir while looking at Guptaji.
“Guptaji, this is Rashmi, and this is Anita. Rashmi loved Madam like her mother, she is very sad to hear this news”
"Yes, the milkman told me about Rashmi."
"Guptaji consoles Rashmi and says, son, you will not be sad, we will find Madam's killer and punish him accordingly. Trust me”
Santosh Sir and Guptaji start walking towards their office, Rashmi and Anita stand there for a while and watch them go.
Santosh Sir tells Guptaji while walking in the street that Rashmi is an orphan, and from childhood, she grew up living here, she mostly stayed with Madam while in summer vacation all the boys used. To stay with Madam She has so much affection for Madame, she was so shocked when she got the news yesterday that she fainted. They arrive at the office while talking.
The inspector informs Santosh Sir that the police have started an investigation. Seeing that the back door of Madam's house was open, it seems that the killer must have come from there, and froze there. Neighbours did not see anyone coming and did not hear any sound.
"Santosh Sir is surprised that the bullet has been fired and no one has heard her voice. How can this be possible?"
"It is only possible if the killer has a silencer on the gun. We also tried to take fingerprints from the house, but no fingerprints or footprints were found there except Madam. A search of the entire house revealed that the killer had searched the house after the murder, but all the valuables in the house belonged to her. Even the money was not stolen, meaning someone came to find something special. It looks like he came right in front of her and shot her. "
"I have known Madam for many years. Madam has no relatives. If there was no enmity with anyone, then what would have come from her," says Santosh Sir.
"There is no enemy, but she must have something the killer wanted, and the madam must have had to kill him if she refused to give it, because there were no signs of burglary in the house."
"Another thing is that before this it seems possible that Madame should have met the killer."
"How can you say that?"
"There are two reasons behind it, one is the look of surprise on Madam's face with fear, it means she was called the killer. That is to say, there is no sign of a scuffle at the place where she was killed. And the second reason is that if a person wants some information or something from someone and if She does not want to give it to the other person, then it is natural that She will be annoyed, then it proves that She should have got it from the madam before this. There must have been a demand for something which the madam refused to give, so he tried to scare her again with a gun, but this time also madam did not give it and he shot her in anger. And another thing that the killer also seems to be adept at wielding a gun, he doesn’t seem to have shot this the first time.
"Santosh Sir's respect increased for Inspector Gupta's sharpness and observational power."How can you say that?"
"Well, Mr Santosh, there is a distance of at least five to six feet between two people when we are standing in front of someone and shooting them. Now the way Madame has been shot right in the middle of the forehead, it doesn't look like the shot was fired by a first-time shooter. This need may be the work of a professional man or someone who has a gun and has the skill to shoot it.
That's all the preliminary investigation has found out; the rest will come after the postmortem report, so I'll come back. "
"Okay then I'll take leave now"
"Hey, I got so deep into your talk that I forgot to ask you for tea or water."
"No, no Santoshji, there is no need for that. I am on duty now and I am also in a hurry, then sometimes. And Inspector Gupta leaves the office. As he came out from office Rashmi passing by and he heads towards his jeep thinking of something.
***
When Anita comes out of the bathroom, Rashmi is not standing there.
"Hey, Rashmi, where did you go? Do you need anything from Santhosh sir?"
"No, I was standing outside his office, listening to the inspector giving information to Santosh Sir. “
"You won't be so impatient; the police are doing their job."
"Yes, I went to hear what the police were doing. Inspector Gupta seems to be very smart. He has learned a lot in the preliminary investigation. “
"Come on; let's go to the hostel canteen now. I'm very hungry. Going there, going to the ground room and telling me everything, what happened? Even today is half a day in school so we will have a lot of time.
Chapter 2 will come soon.
