Never Jump To Conclusions

“Think think think. I need to get out of this.”, I kept on reminding myself.

It started just a few weeks ago. Thanks to the goodwill of my father Sakharam More, I had been able to join the police force as a constable and thanks to my glib talking I made few friends. This helped me in earning that much needed extra money for my expenses. Life is too short and has to be enjoyed at the fullest. It was a surprise that I ended on the right side of the law. Anyone who knew me from childhood would have thought otherwise.

That evening, Pintya Jadhav met me in the bar. Pintya and I were childhood friends and we shared the same likes and dislikes. He owned a small two-wheeler repair shop, but was never serious about the business. He was always on the lookout for additional money.

“Deepak,” he said,” A new guy has moved in the neighbourhood. Seems to be a very devout person complete with the skull cap and Pathani dress. Let’s pick on him and get some additional money.”

His eyes sparkled as he said this. Yes, this would be easy. Pressurise the guy about beef or love jihad and he’ll cough up money, I thought.

We finished the beer and started to leave when the power went down. We kept our phones at our homes and proceeded. It was dark when we knocked on his door. A skinny guy in his early twenties opened the door. I was in my uniform.

“Yes sir?”, he asked enquiringly.

“We need to talk. Let’s get inside.”, without disclosing our names, we entered his house.

His name was Ismail. It was an ordinary lower middle-class person’s house with minimum furniture and sparsely decorated. To cut a long story short, I charged him with love jihad and he started explaining. In the course of that conversation, Pintya’s sisters name came up. This was unexpected. Pintya never knew that his sister was friends with this guy. This incensed him, and he gave a blow on Ismail’s chin. Being unprepared, he toppled over, hit his head against the corner of the table and fell on his back.

A slow and steady stream of blood flowed from under his head. When I saw no movement, I moved quickly to check his breathing and couldn’t feel any. Pintya was still standing with a victorious smile on his face having knocked out a person on a single blow.

I glanced around the room and grabbed a towel that was left for drying and tried to control the blood flow. Looking around I saw the entrance to the bathroom.

“Pintya, he’s dead. Help me to move him to the bathroom. Quick. We don’t have time.” I said.

Pintya looked surprised, then scared and then he panicked as the gravity of the situation hit him. Without a word with shaky hands, he helped me move Ismail to the bathroom and removed his clothes. I applied some soap to Ismail’s foot and some on the floor to make it look like he slipped on the floor.

I took Ismail’s wallet and the blood-soaked towel with us and got out of his house. There was no one outside. Fortunately, the power outage had continued. Thanking my stars, we moved away. On the way I threw the towel on a garbage dump. We didn’t speak a word until we reached our regular meeting place, Banaras Paan shop.

I told Pintya, to keep shut and forget all that happened.

Sure enough the next day Ismail’s dead body was found when his sister returned and the police enquiry started. I was surprised when the case was handed over to the Crime Branch almost immediately and Inspector Dhairyasheel Mahajan took charge. This case should have been accidental death so there was no chance of Crime Branch's involvement. I knew Mahajan Saheb from my father’s time. He had just a couple of years for retirement and was known for being upright and very thorough in his work. He also had a sharp sense of observation. I decided to meet him.

During my meeting with him, my fathers good name again came to my help and he agreed to take me on the case as I was a local lad who knew the area very well.

He told me that this was not a case of accidental death. From the limited amount of blood found around the head in the bathroom, it was clear that the deceased had died elsewhere and had been placed in the bathroom. But the house was found to be clean, so that angle remained to be investigated. The wound was such that it was as if made by a pointed object and NOT by falling on the floor. Had the deceased slipped and fallen on the floor, the wound have been blunted. In the post mortem there were no signs of any trauma on the back muscles. Had the person slipped and fallen on his head, the back muscles would also have borne some shock.

The FIR was changed from accidental death to murder.

Mahajan Saheb asked details of all phones that were active in that area. Next, he asked to shortlist only those phones that visited that area and left after some time. Our phone numbers did not appear in that list. I heaved a sigh of relief.

Two days later, news came in that a CCTV from a nearby shop had captured a person walking away from Ismail’s home that night. When I checked the footage, it was Pintya. Why did the idiot go back to the crime scene?

I met Pintya and asked him. He replied that he had panicked and returned to check if Ismail was really dead. While he was returning, the power came back and probably at that time his image got captured. I told him to make a story that he had been to the Paan shop where he met me. The Paan shop owner would be our alibi. All the other time he was at his home. I also told him that our phone numbers were not in the list that was being checked by the police. But he appeared to be distraught.

Mahajan Saheb showed me the video and asked me if by any chance I knew the person in the video. There was no way I could not lie to him. I told him that I knew the person in the video very well and there wasn’t any chance he could have committed the crime.

Mahajan Saheb smiled, "First rule of criminal investigation. Never jump to conclusions."
He took me with him to Pintya’s house.

He spoke to Pintya about where he was that evening and asked if he knew Ismail. Pintya replied all that I had tutored him. But from his demeanor it was evident to me that he would crack. It was good that I again went to meet him later that evening for he was almost prepared to hand over himself to the police. He said that after we had left in the morning a second police team had paid a visit to Pintya and threatened him and his family of dire consequences if they failed to speak the truth.

It was obvious that in absence of any other clues, Pintya was the prime suspect and the police would raise all hell until they were satisfied of his innocence. The police work in a way that is exactly opposite of the courts. For them every person is guilty until proven innocent.

I somehow managed to pacify him, but it became clear to me that if Pintya cracked I would also be caught. That left me with only one option - Eliminate Pintya.

I kept tabs on him the whole of the next day and asked him to meet me at our spot behind the Rajaram Canal garden at 10 in the night. I bluffed that his name was at last eliminated from the police investigation and to celebrate we can have a good session of Tandoori Chicken with Whisky. I knew that since he was on a fast that day, he wouldn’t tell anyone at home that he was leaving for a drinking and Tandoori Chicken session.

That night luckily for me there wasn't anyone in the garden. I got him drunk well beyond his usual capacity and when he passed out, I slipped Ismail’s wallet in Pintya’s pocket and held a Chloroform soaked handkerchief against his nose for some time. I slipped a suicide note that said “I am a murderer” into his pocket then pushed him into the canal at a point where the depth was more than 10 feet. I knew that Pintya could not swim. The fall into the water made a loud splash. I waited a few seconds, as everything returned to normal I looked around and walked away.

The next day as soon as I reached the police station, Mahajan Saheb told me get into our jeep.

“We have a breakthrough”, he said. “The main suspect in the case was missing from his home since last evening. The police control room got a call later. They fished out a guy from the Rajaram Canal. It contained a wallet that had driving license and PAN card of the Muslim guy that we are investigating. The suicide note confesses to the killing.”

Mahajan Saheb continued with his monologue, “You work on a case, you do all the right moves and it still comes down to a lucky break.”

“We missed the turn,” I said.

“What”, he asked.

“We missed the left turn for the mortuary. That’s where the body is right?” I responded.

“Who said he was dead? A tramp fished him out. He's in intensive care but he'll be OK. First rule of police work. Never jump to conclusions.”

That hit me hard and I broke into cold sweat.

“Think think think damnit. I need to get out of this.”, I kept on reminding myself.