Read the previous chapter- The Second Suspect.
Previously, on Missing- Vinay, a boy in his twenties, with no family is living alone in Kharghar when his ex, who is supposed to be missing for the past two years shows up and the next day jumps off the sky-walk, naked and bruised. There are two suspects to the case now, Vinay Saroj and Rajiv Chandra. And today is their first hearing at court.
5th Day since Inara’s return.
“Hey Ruhi.”
“Hi dad!” a girl on the other side voiced.
“Where are you? Haven’t seen you for days!”
“I had told you dad, I had an appointment with one of my clients. We’re discussing about starting a new brand in the name Mufixe, so I’m here at Pune currently.”
“That’s a fancy name you’ve got there! Anyway, I wanted to ask whether you know anything about Inara Rajan. She was a student in your college, perhaps, your junior,” the man asked.
“Dad? Are you okay? You never talk to me about any of your cases.”
“I know baccha, but, this one’s a bit twisted and I have to defend a boy who has the least chance of survival as all the evidences are against him.”
“Well, in that case; yeah, I knew Inara. Not very well, though. She was one of the best in NIFT. We never talked much, but, maybe I tried talking to her, a few times, but she had always been a bit arrogant and after her rude replies, I didn’t make any effort. That’s it and all I know is one fine day, she was nowhere to be found. Wasn’t a fine day for her I suppose.”
“Hmmm. Today is the hearing and I’ll be leaving in a while. I’ve interrogated him yesterday. I’m not sure about this case.”
“Chill dad! I’ve always told you that you are the best lawyer and I know you are. You’ll do great!”
“You overestimate me Ruhi,” he replied.
“I know you will do great in this case as well. Wish you luck dad!”
“Yep! That is what I will be needing the most today. Luck. Bye betu.”
“Bye dad!”
Later that afternoon.
Everyone stood as a female judge entered the room and everyone took their places as she did. If not the sound of the creaking overhead fan was heard, the room was in a pin-drop silence as the judge scanned through the files and reports submitted by the prosecution. To the left of the judge was Vinay, loosely poised in the dock. His face was dry and hands were shivering as if a man in his nineties stood in his place.
“Prosecution may begin with the case,” she said with a nod.
“Your honor, the person standing here in the dock is a vicious rapist and murderer…”
“Objection your honor! Mr. Sinha is forgetting that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty as is my client here.”
Sinha dealt him a sharp look from the corner of his eyes.
“Objection sustained, and Mr. Avasthi, it is not for you to decide who is innocent,” the judge replied.
With an apologizing nod to the judge, Sinha walked up to Vinay.
“Tell me Vinay. When was the last time you saw Inara before she jumped off the skywalk?”
“In my room. She was sleeping by my side.”
“And how long have you kept her with you? Or rather, for how long have your imprisoned her?”
“Objection your honor! Leading question!”
“Objection overruled,” the judge replied without a glance towards Mr. Avasthi.
“Tell me, for how long have you had her imprisoned in your flat?”
“I haven’t sir. Believe me, I haven’t. She had returned to me, out of nowhere the same morning and she did not talk the whole day. I thought it was the past that haunted her so I did not find it fit to question on her past at that moment, but… but then she…”
“Lies! Everything is a lie! To support my claim your honor, may I call Mrs. Biswas to the dock?”
“Proceed.”
The landlady walked up to the dock with trembling feet. Old age had got over her bones, but there were no more than two wrinkle lines on her face. Strands of gray hair peeked through her thick open hair.
“Tell me Mrs. Biswas, did you sense anything awkward by Vinay’s behavior? Any signs of aggression or any violent tendency?”
“Aggression? No. Never. If anyone said that he has a bad temper, I would gladly and happily tell the court that it is a lie. He was always the sweetest child. But then,”
“But what?” Mr. Sinha interrupted.
“After Inara went missing, Vinay kept himself isolated from everyone. He has always loved the Bengali style fish curry and I would share it with him every time I made it. But, after her disappearance, he wouldn’t answer my calls. I banged harder and harder but he never replied. At times I was too terrified to hear various sounds from his room?”
“Various sounds? Will you please elaborate?” inveigled Mr. Sinha
“I would hear someone screaming. I’m not sure if it was him or someone else but, someone at times did yell out of pain from his room.”
“That is it your honor! By Mrs. Biswas’s statement, it is proved that Vinay did have someone else with him and it was no other than Inara Rajan!”
“Your honor, I would like to ask few questions to Mrs. Biswas, if you please,” curtseyed Mr. Avasthi and the judge replied in a nod.
“So, Mrs. Biswas, are you sure he did not talk to anyone and had totally isolated himself?”
“Yes, I can wager on it that he kept himself away from any contact from living soul for about a month.”
“And when did you hear these screams?” asked Mr. Avasthi.
“Within the first month, after that there were no voices but, he never let me enter his room.”
“And since your tenant, didn’t let you enter his room, you thought this was suspicious?” Mr. Avasthi turned towards the judge. “Your honor, can’t a man have privacy in time of heartbreaks? Obviously, he needed to recover and so he did not want to meet with anyone or let anyone hinder his peace.”
“Mr. Avasthi, can you hear yourself? In today’s world of Facebook proposals and WhatsApp divorces, your client needs two years of isolation to recover a one sided relationship of few months. Come on! I thought you were better at arguing against the claims on your client,” to this affront by Mr. Sinha, the court’s silence was sliced by shallow breaths of laughter and smiles.
Mr. Avasthi walked back to his seat without looking at anyone.
“Anyway, continuing with the case. With your permission, I would like to call upon the dock, Mr. Shyamlal Bansi, the ticket collector of Kharghar Railway Station.”
“Objection your honor! There was no prior notice about calling Mr. Bansi as an evidence!” yelled Mr. Avasthi.
“And if we told you, we were to call him, what would you do? Bribe him to not come for the hearing?” Mr. Sinha retorted.
“You do not call me a corrupt in court Mr. Sinha!” yelled Avasthi at the top of his voice.
“Mr. Sinha, Mr. Avasthi! I want order in my court!” the judge shouted, banging the gavel.
The court dropped down to silence and Shyamlal entered the dock.
“Tell me Mr. Shyamlal, what happened on the morning of 8th April? What did you see?”
“I was late that morning. Actually, after a long time, me and my wife had spent some good time…so…”
“It’s okay Mr. Bansi, we won’t get into the details. What happened when you reached the station?”
“My morning shift starts from four in the morning, but, I overslept and was late the following morning. I was hurrying my way towards the station, it was then that I heard tires screeching to halt and few loud thuds before everything went quite. I got down from the auto and paced my way towards ticket house when I saw this boy running down from the skywalk. He was panting and sweating, as if he had run a league. I did not care then, but the next day, when I saw his picture in the newspaper, I recognized him at once.”
“That’s all Mr. Bansi, thank you so much,” said Mr. Sinha before facing towards the judge. “So, according to Mr. Bansi, Vinay was present at the crime scene and later ran away from it. Let me ask you Vinay. You said Inara was in your room before you saw her at the skywalk, the, how did she end up naked and bruised on the skywalk by the morning?”
“I don’t know sir. At night someone attacked and I was unconscious for about two hours and I couldn’t find Inara anywhere in the house so I ran to search for her.”
“Well well, didn’t it appear to you that if at all someone abducted her, once again as you say, they might have already taken her out of Navi-Mumbai within that time frame? Why did you have to run towards station? Did you expect the kidnappers to stand at the station and wait for Andheri train as it arrived before leaving from Kharghar? You should’ve directly went to the police, shouldn’t you?”
Vinay had no reply. Mr. Sinha was right. He should have gone to the cops. He remembered what he had in his mind while scanning the station. Hope.
“It seems Mr. Vinay is unable to speak. Your honor I would like to call someone who can and whose statement is the most important in this case.
“Does the defense have any objection on this?” asked the judge.
“No your honor,” Mr. Avasthi replied, raising himself partially from the seat before sitting again.
“I would like to call to the dock, Mr. Rajiv Chandra.”
Rajiv entered the dock, since the beginning of the hearing, he hadn’t looked at Vinay, if at all he had, it was out of contempt.
“So, Rajiv, since when do you know Vinay? And how well do you know him?”
“Actually, it was Inara who started talking to him first and later I knew he was an orphan and lived alone here at Kharghar. In the beginning, Inara shared with me everything they talked about, his failures and his tough life after his family died in a train accident in twenty-ten. I didn’t know any more than this. Nothing more than that he had started liking Inara and wanted to date her.”
“Did Inara feel the same as he did?” asked Mr. Sinha.
“Inara felt nothing for him but he kept on pushing. It was at a party that we asked Inara to get Vinay. There, he felt uncomfortable so, just to cheer him up, we started singing, and when it was his turn he started with Muhammed Rafi’s song and everyone mocked him for that. He couldn’t bear this so he charged out of the room angrily. And Inara followed him. After I went out in the courtyard, I saw them arguing about something…”
“Lies! He’s lying!” Vinay shouted.
“Mr. Pranav Avasthi, please ask your client to remain silent, he will be given chance to speak,” the judged said and Pranav motioned him to remain silent. Then Rajiv continued.
“I didn’t want to get between them so I was just leaving until Vinay came rushing towards me and caught me around my throat. I still remember the scene, crystal clear. I had never seen him so angry before. ‘I wouldn’t hesitate to smile as you suffocate,’ he said crushing my throat.”
“Stop lying Rajiv! It was you who said that!” Vinay yelled. His eyes, red and he shivered in rage.
“Mr. Avasthi! What is going on here!” scolded the judge.
“Vinay! Please remain quite,” said Mr. Avasthi.
“Then?” asked Mr. Sinha to Rajiv.
“Inara ran towards us and freed me from Vinay and slapped him. He was about to hit her back when other people came in the courtyard and he retreated and walked back home. May be it was all the insult that made him do so to Inara.”
“Thank you Rajiv,” said Mr. Sinha as Rajiv left the dock.
The court was pin drop silent again. Every soul breathed in cautiously for the revelation of the past weighed their emotions. Yashwant looked at Vinay, startled on hearing such behavior by Vinay towards Inara and Rajiv. Inara’s father clenched his fists as he glared at Vinay.
“That’s all your honor. The poor girl brought him to the party and he misbehaved with her best friend. She couldn’t bear it and hit Vinay. Enraged, on not hitting her back, he left and planned for the most viscous crime one could think of. He abducted her just few days before her fashion show contest. He then raped her for a month and once he realized that Mrs. Biswas could hear it, he started injecting in loads of drugs in her system so that she may have no memory to remember any of this, no energy to defend herself from what was happening to her. He kept her in his house for about two years and that is why didn’t allow Mrs. Biswas to enter his room. Post mortem report show that her system included drugs which was injected not more than a week ago. It was just a day before she was found on the highway.
“She must have found a way to escape and that is when the struggle happened in his bedroom. That poor girl might have fought for her life but this boy made her life miserable. She was so depressed and tired out of the events happening with her in the past two years that she couldn’t run anymore. She jumped off the skywalk when she did have a chance to run and knock at any door for help. She was too depressed and knackered to continue and all because of this bloke standing over here. That’s it your honor.”
The court was silent. No one could think about anything else than Inara. No one spoke for a long time. Everyone need time to let all the revelation sink in. Mr. Avasthi had no words to speak in Vinay’s defense, everything was clear in front of everyone.
Vinay did have a motive to kill Inara.
“It was Rajiv’s birthday party,” Vinay started, fighting back his tears. “I didn’t want to go, but Inara insisted. They started singing and I sung the Muhammed Rafi song which they mocked me for,” he continued looking into a void in front of his eyes.
“Yes, I was angry, but then Inara came and talked softly. I knew she did feel the same for me. She kissed me on the cheek and just then Rajiv hit me from behind and I dropped down to my fours. He loved her too, but she considered him no more than a good friend. He grabbed my throat and pressed it harder until I choked. ‘I wouldn’t hesitate to smile while you suffocate. I hate you bastard,’ Rajiv said. Inara pushed Rajiv aside and pulled me up. I found it hard to breathe and coughed.”
“‘You’re drunk and sick Rajiv!’ she said and slapped him. We left from there and Inara apologized for everything. We got into relationship the same week and she didn’t talk to Rajiv for weeks. But, after she did, she said she had chosen the wrong person as her best friend and we had a fight as I yelled at her for talking to Rajiv again and spoiling her mood. I knew she would go on to think about the same thing for weeks. She said she knew something and that everyone needs to know who he truly is. And after two days, she went missing. That is why I believed he had a motive to kill her because she knew something and soon would tell everyone about it.”
Apart from the creaking fans, everything in the courtroom was still. People did not know whom to believe. Things were getting haywire. After a long period of silence, the judge spoke.
“After a bit of consideration the court has decided to ask the investigating officer Inspector Jayveer Pratap to run a detailed analysis on the credibility of each of their theories. The final decision of the court will be given on the next hearing that is on 18th April 2019. Prosecution and defense are requested to be prepared with their closing arguments. Till then, the court is adjourned,” with three bangs with the gavel, the hearing ended.
Read the next chapter - The Confession.
Next Chapter - The Confession - on 11th June 2019.
What just happened? Two suspects, two different theories. Whose story is twisted? Vinay's or Rajiv's? Is Vinay actually the kind of boy as described by Rajiv or everything is a hoax?
Who did what with Inara? Find out in the next chapter.
The Confession.
Announcing the names of the next few chapters:
The Confession
Hearing Day 2
Things We Do For Love (Final Chapter).
Poster credits:
Picture credits: Pinterest.
Edited by: Rohan Basak.
Read other best stories by Rohan Basak
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