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Word Count : 3000

Audio Theme : | From the movie Anjaam Pathira |

https://youtu.be/yziTFx80wDc

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41 | The Angry Crowd

14th May 2023

| Morning |

He observed her from the periphery of his vision.

Her brows were scrunched together; the body, on the other hand, was tensed. She was even on the verge of slipping on the floor once as her hands frantically searched for something in the accessory drawers while her eyes went through each and every crevice of the walk-in closet in a frenzied manner.

He stood erect, absolutely stoic. "What happened? What are you searching for?"

The second his voice fell on her ears, her frame went rigid. She slowly turned around to face him. "Nothing major. I was just looking for an old official document. I think I have left it in my previous staff quarter."

He sized her up from head to toe. "Alright." Taking a step forward, he strode in her direction. "I have brought a shower shield. Quickly take a shower, and then we'll go and get the dressing changed. Yeah?"

"No need for that." She ducked her head down. "I already had a shower shield. Moreover, I have showered as well. As for the redressing of the wound, it is supposed to be done tomorrow as per the directions of the doctor who treated it in the hospital last night."

He stayed silent for some moments, staring at her with an atypical countenance and then smiled. "Okay."

She passed a faint smile at him and started walking out of the closet. He followed behind. "Also," she turned around. "I wanted to ask you, that doctor who came to check on Anirudh the night he was down with fever, he also knows that we are married? Do you think he will open up about it in front of anyone?"

"Trust me, he won't." He smiled. "I have glued his mouth well."

A quick breakfast later, all of them gathered together in the living room when she saw her brother fetching his belongings from the guest room. And all of it was funny because throughout his entire stay with them he had only slept and spent his time in Anirudh's nursery.

The toddler, meanwhile, was still asleep. All the farting last night had supposedly drained him of all his energy.

Vijaypath strolled inside once again to get his water bottle. Mahadevan swiftly stepped next to his wife.

"All charged up for a new day?"

In response, she rose on her toes. Noticing this, he bent forward, placing his right ear in line with her mouth.

"Yes." Her breaths created a soft tingling sensation on his earlobe. "The sun chose to rise again."

A sharp pause followed, her eyes coated in a shade of hesitation. "For the Earth."

His Adam's apple bobbed quite discernibly while he steadied his abnormal breathing rate. "You say things like these, and then you threaten me of a heartbreak? Very barbaric of you to do so, Mrs. Dogra."

Out of nowhere, two sharp coughs followed along with a rough clearing of someone's throat.

Hinduja jumped back amuck. Mahadevan scratched his cheek, letting out sharp breaths of irritation.

Vijaypath Rao on the other hand looked at them with his face scrunched in a funnily weird manner.

"Sorry." He mumbled and rapidly strode out of the penthouse apartment with his bag.

"I'll see him out." She trailed, gazing at her brother's back.

Mahadevan nodded.

Quickly locking the door behind her, Hinduja rushed towards her brother, who was walking towards the elevator. "Bhai!"

He turned around in one go, awkwardly staring at his foot. "Yeah?"

The situation slowly turned tenfold embarrassing. "We were just talking." She whispered.

Raising his head and hand up, he patted her cheeks, his eyes soft. "He is your husband, Molu. You don't need to justify all these." Taking a pause, he stepped forward and quirked his brow up to form a lopsided smile. "Moreover, isn't that Banyan tree already stealing all your affection? I don't even think I can fight for any, for the time being."

She chuckled, shaking her head and then mouthed. "Brothers fight for affection Bhai; Fathers don't."

He stared at her, his mouth slightly agape. Meanwhile, his eyes slowly turned crystal clear. Glancing at her for once last time, he flicked her forehead and turned around to enter the elevator. "Go, romance that Banyan tree and eat his brain cells! Mine are too precious for my patients to get depleted so soon. I will call you later."

"Idiot." She muttered with a smile.

***

An hour down the lane, as she entered the gates of the Special Investigation Team's headquarters, the sight in front of her shocked her to the core.

A mob of around hundred to hundred and fifty people, both men and women, had surrounded the main entrance, posters in their hands and their voices echoing through each and every crevice of the humongous government edifice. They were enraged; she could sense it.

Immediately after, she found a familiar male figure rushing towards her from somewhere around the parking area, most probably from the back exit. Patwardhan quickly bowed, "Jai Hind." Grabbed her wrist and rushed in the very same direction he had initially approached her from.

She freed her wrist from his hold but didn't cease her movements beside him. "They are the parents and guardians of the victims." She heard him say. "News about what happened yesterday in Bhagwantpura has spread around rapidly, so they are here to protest. They want the police to hand over the perpetrator to them."

"He is dead." She shot back, entering the office from the back exit.

"They want to burn the dead body publicly." He replied.

She sighed.

"Moreover, they have already declared the SIT an incompetent organization. They want the case to be handed over to the NIA." He voiced out as he pushed open the conference room door for her to enter.

Her body turned frigid immediately as her pace increased.

From her peripheral vision, she witnessed the other eight already seated inside, at their respective places. The ninth figure of the Inspector General was settled on the head chair in absolute silence.

With a heavy sigh, the IG got up. "I think the case will be soon handed over to the NIA." He announced.

Her fists tightened. "I have a plan." She met Raghav's eyes. Then she turned around to look at the IG. "... to prevent this."

Her eyes clashed with Raghav's again, both of their brains already traversing in the same direction.

Patwardhan and the others looked on at the interaction with confusion.

The DCP passed a quick nod.

She began. "Rukmini." She then turned to look at Praapti. "Praapti-I need both of your help."

Rukmini promptly got up with a faint bow of reverence.

Praapti followed suit. "Madam"

Around five minutes later, two ladies in civvies emerged out of the massive entrance of the SIT headquarters, their eyes staunch and backbone resembling steel.

Rukmini maintained eye contact with the angry crowd. Praapti stood straight just behind her, both of their hands locked behind their backs in attention pose. The aggrieved guardians and parents turned even more violent in their bearing while the guards in Khaaki found it extremely hard to control the situation at hand. Most of the police barriers were already either damaged to the very last piece or already broken into two due to force.

Praapti passed the yellow handheld megaphone in her hand to Rukmini.

"Hand over that bastard to us! We'll burn him right in front of our eyes! Dead or alive, we don't care!" Someone in the crowed roared.

"Yes!" The others joined.

"Calm down!" Praapti shouted.

"Our children are somewhere out there suffering from god knows what! And you want us to calm down!?"

Rukmini took hold of the megaphone, glanced at the messy handwriting on the chit placed on her left palm for one last time, lined the megaphone in front of her mouth, and set her voice in motion.

"Silence!" She ordered.

The mass went dead still.

Praapti simpered.

"Today, I stand here as a representative of the Special Investigation Team. Myself, Assistant Superintendent of Police Rukmini Desai. Your anger is absolutely justified, but please hear me out before taking any further decision, whether violent or non-violent."

She paused, briefly assessing the look on their faces-some were tensed, some were plainly drowned in grief, but one emotion that ruled over all was rage-blinding rage.

"This case is a decade old case, and it is complicated to it's very core. The SIT has taken over this case this very year as well, and that is the reason behind the delay in finding the culprit. We know time is running out of our hands rapidly, yet time is the factor all of us are in desperate need of. Trust me, this is me speaking as a woman and not as an officer."

Her gaze softened. "Your daughters are as much as our daughters as well."

In a flash, her eyes were back to their hard selves again. "Moving on, we have already zeroed down on some strong traces and evidence against the culprit." She slowly turned her stern gaze towards the news reporters, the camera men and women, and their cameras. "Therefore, we hereby declare in front of you all that the SIT shall catch the perpetrator before six a.m. sharp in the morning on 1st June 2023. Mark the date and time. It's our commitment to you all, and we will fulfill it no matter what!" She concluded.

Half an hour later, the SIT compound stood dead quiet with the security guards peacefully back at their original loci.

***

"That was a weird but extremely strong move." Tapan Dutta commented, glancing at the news headlines on the MacBook his friend was keenly going through. "You think they have some evidence? It's a little hard to digest."

"They don't." Mahadevan smirked, his poker face fully intact. "But she does."

Tapan looked at him, confused. But the moment realization dawned upon him, his eyes enlarged as he assessed Mahadevan's face. "Don't tell me..." He trailed in a grave tone. "Hinduja is part of the Special Investigation Team?"

Mahadevan's unfeeling eyes hardened instantaneously as he clasped his fingers on the table.

"I am sorry." Tapan muttered under his breath. "Hinduja Bhabhi is part of the Special Investigation Team?"

His question was answered with a faint nod.

"Unbelievable." He voiced out. "Wait a minute." He focused his eyes on the man seated before him on the other side of the massive worktable, on the throne like presidential chair once again. "The declaration of that lady officer-you think it was Hinduja Bhabhi's plan?"

"If not her, who else?" Mahadevan replied. "It was a smart move to send two policewomen instead of men to handle the situation. She knew the mass consisted of people with families and, most importantly, women. And people of that kind won't give rise to any kind of violence against women." He paused, his long and sturdy fingers gyrating the paperweight around its own axis. "And that declaration wasn't exactly a declaration. It is a well planned challenge."

"Indeed." Karim commented.

Tapan sighed. "Devan, pardon me, but I am not able to grasp anything at all." He grasped the glass of water kept on the table. "Hinduja Bhabhi has some agenda as well?" Taking a sip of water, he kept the glass back at its initial position. "God, I am not able to get all of this through my head at all. How is Hinduja Bhabhi connected to any of these?" He asked, perplexity shadowing the mien on his visage.

"Who knows." Mahadevan answered, his eyes impenetrable.

Tapan clenched his jaw. "Mahadevan, can you please give straight answers just for once?! Grandpa died, and one fine day you came to me saying that you liked some girl called Kadambini, and she was also dead! And then all of a sudden, a year later, you found one of her friends called Hinduja out of nowhere! You went as far as to follow her around everywhere she went-going to the extent that you followed her to her university in Kerala despite being engaged to Shivalika at that time!" He stood up in one go, thumping his palm on the table. "And if all of that was not normal, after everything that happened in the past few years, you announce your marriage with her last year out of the blue! What the fuck is actually happening, dammit!?"

Mahadevan sat still, staring at his friend blankly. "One more decibel higher, and you will find yourself out of this building. Clear?"

Tapan scratched his head while letting out a sigh of exhaustion. "Are you using her?"

Mahadevan chuckled. "You think she will let me use her?" He paused, glancing at the queen on the wooden chess board kept next to his personal computer. "Never." He declared.

Meanwhile, Karim's phone beeped.

Quickly extracting the device out of his jacket's pocket, he turned it on to go through the text.

He then turned around to look at his boss. "Sahib, there is some intel about the Sassoons."

"Bring it."

With two quick movements of his limbs, Karim marched out of the majestic Victorian office. Two minutes later, he returned with a royal black leather file.

Stationing it on the table in front of his boss, he opened it.

In a second, a pair of lucid azure eyes stared back at Mahadevan from the photograph kept inside the file.

"The rumors were true. Yakub Sassoon is back in India along with his son Abraham Sassoon." Karim turned to the next page. Again, a pair of clear azure eyes similar to the ones on the previous page greeted back Mahadevan. "This is Abraham Sassoon."

Mahadevan went through both photographs. Unlike his father, who had a bald spot on his head along with salt and pepper locks on the sides, Abraham had dense black hair. And while Yakub had a thick beard and moustache, Abraham sported a clean-shaved face with a thick yet sharply shaped moustache.

As for those azure eyes, they spoke volumes.

"And Sahib," Karim began, "Abraham is frantically searching for someone."

"For whom?"

"No idea as of now, Sahib."

"Where are they currently?" Mahadevan asked.

"In their palatial manor, back in Wayanad, Kerala."

Getting up from the presidential chair, he strolled towards the window, his gaze fixed on the sky beyond the confines of his office. It was going to rain soon.

"What about the Sassoons, now?" Tapan asked.

"Nothing." Came a crisp reply. "Anyway..." He turned around. "We had the details about the number of family members of all the officers in the SIT, didn't we?"

Karim passed a quick nod.

"Get them."

In less than three minutes, Karim Khan was back with another file. "Starting with Inspector General Neeraj Sathe, including himself, he has a total of seven people living in his bungalow-his grandmother, his parents, his wife, both of his teenaged children, and he himself."

"Seven down." Mahadevan faintly smiled.

Karim and Tapan appeared confused.

Nevertheless, Karim continued with the work at hand. "Then comes DCP Raghav Katoch. He is single. His family lives back in his hometown, so as of now he is the only one present in the state."

"Seven plus one; eight down."

"DSP Ramandeep Singhvi. He is married with two kids, a boy and a girl." Karim announced.

"Eight plus four; twelve down," Mahadevan voiced out, still playing with the paperweight.

"ASP Rukmini Desai. Her mother died during the pandemic, so as of now she lives with her father."

"Twelve plus two." He paused, gazing at the dark gloomy sky outside. "Fourteen down."

"ASP Patwardhan Singh. His elder brother lives in Singapore, so currently he has only his father and mother living with him." Karim turned to the next page.

"Fourteen plus three; seventeen down."

"Next is ASP Jishu Fernandes. He is married. No kids."

"Ninteen down."

"ASP Gaurav Jain, married with a one-year-old baby girl." Karim's eyes became a tone gentler.

Mahadevan chuckled, "As expected. Nineteen plus three. Twenty-two down"

Tapan peeked at the file in front of Karim.

"Inspector Praapti Maartand. She is married and has a teenage son."

"Twenty-five down."

"Then come, Sub Inspector Daleep Bedi and Assistant Sub Inspector Maninder Yadav. Both of them are married. Both of Daleep's daughters are in college, while Yadav has a teenage son in the last year of his high school and a younger daughter in middle school."

"Twenty-five plus eight; thirty-three down."

Karim finally faced Mahadevan, shifting his attention from the file. "Lastly, madam herself. She has you, the young master, Vijaypath Sahib, as the closest family members. Moreover, her parents are currently in Karnataka, so as of now she has only you three as family in the state."

"Thirty-three plus four; thirty-seven down!" Mahadevan sniggered. "Or how about we take two for Anirudh?" He volt-faced to look at Karim. "He is special for her after all."

Tilting his head towards his left shoulder, he took a look at the chess board on his table. The shiny piece of queen to his eyes definitely stood apart. "That makes it thirty-eight then? Isn't it?"

Silence prevailed as he continued to stare at the queen. "Well played, wife, very well played."

Realization crossed Karim's visage as he stared at his boss, absolutely astounded. "The trackers?"

"Yes." Mahadevan smiled as he looked outside.

It was raining.

***