Dreams and Reasons

"Ok jaleel. I think you sent the location updates to every time the bus stopped somewhere right?" Shastri asked Jaleel.

Jaleel refused to answer shastri. He was looking at shastri murderously.

Shastri ignored his murderous gaze.

"I already knew you were the murderer at the beginning. You see, have you ever played cricket or football? In that you swing the bat or foot to gather momentum. Once the ball comes.you swing it. On basis how much strength you put on that swing the ball moves. That was the principal here."

"As the path of the Ghats are treacherous and because it is morning time the bus should be moving slowly. But the bus was fast near the accident path. I was just thinking why the speed of the bus had suddenly increased. And then the accident happened."

"Because of that, I had absolutely no doubt that you were also part of the murder. The rest of the part included checking out who was with you."

Jaleel after listening, laughed "Is this the only evidence you have? Then how can you prove a case against me?"

Shastri looked at him and said nonchalantly, "You think you are some sort of supervillian? In my eyes you are nothing but a cat trying to act like a tiger. Once I had confirmed that you were the murderer I had already collected a lot of evidences against you. At that time I also wanted to check your history. How did your brother die Mr. Jaleel?"

Jaleel's face turned pale.

"You don't remember? The thing is that your brother was a drug lord. Due to the betrayal of an informer in the gang your brother was encountered. So, you moved your place of activities from there to here. As your brother was looking after operations you had no criminal history. It was easy for you to become a driver. I think for the first 6 months you worked as a normal driver. Once you were sure nobody would suspect you the drug operations began. Right?

Jaleel stayed silent.

"I think abeer worked some small odd jobs to for your gang in this area. So you contacted him and made him the partner. You would supply the goods to him and the end supplier was jones. You all made a huge profits with this."

"There were not much people who knew about this so you were good. But once jones said he would quit you started fearing he would become an informer. Although you did not know much about jones you did not want him to become a thorn of your path. In the future if abeer wanted to quit he would not be safe."

Abeer looked at Jaleel and shivered. Shastri pretended not to see him as he went on explaining the case.

"I was surprised by the decisiveness at which you took the action. That suggested to me that there was some prior story behind this. Now, can we please hear the confession from your own mouth or do you need any more evidence?"

Jaleel sat there quietly. The whole police station was silent, eagerly waiting to hear his words. Then without warning he began to laugh.

"Yeah, I did it. You see I had grown up seeing my brother's footstep. He had brought drug market singlehandedly. There was no competition for him in the market. Looking at him I also planned to be the next leader of the drug market. But he did not involve me in the business and kept me far from it. Then one day I get the news- My brother was setup by informer and encountered."

"Then I thought about this plan. I would trust nobody. I would deal with drugs far away from hometown. I would expand my business from like that. I would eventually become a big drug lord then my brother."

Shastri looked at him with his eyes wide open. Then he said "Fool".

"Why are you calling me a fool? You may have apprehended me but you can't mock my dreams" Jaleel said angrily.

"I have never seen a bigger fool than you. Mocking your dreams- Give me a break. But can it even be said as a dream?"

Seeing that Jaleel was about to interrupt him he continued" You see, I was surprised that your name was not in police records. You know why? Your brother always wanted you to be in the safe side and follow a stable job. He had requested the encountering police officer to not include your name. That is why you were kept out in many of the drug dealing operations. He wanted you to find a stable job and not to be involved in drug dealing."

"You may find a momentary thrill while dodging the law. But you will be drowned by the curses of innocent people to whom you have caused suffering. It is not my intention, but seeing you like this- is just pathetic."

Jaleel sat there silently. Then he began sobbing.

Shastri looked at them, feeling ridiculous. Then he told Viraj, "Ok I have already caught the culprits of the murder. You may ask them to cooperate with you for further proceeding. I will give you my bank account. You can transfer money to my bank account tomorrow. After tomorrows due date there will be interest on the amount. The Interest rate will be 4.5% on the total amount. The interest rate will…"

"Wait a minute" Viraj yelled "Do you mean I have to pay you?"

"Yeah. You have to pay me. My consulting services are not cheap. Anyway you have already seen the result of my work. You can also pay me by cash,UPI etc. Now can you send me someone to drop me off?" Shastri asked.

The two went outside bickering among themselves. The Cops smiled and began further proceedings against the culprits.