Esha Atwal - 2

My first case was one of the most challenging cases I have ever faced. I wasn't disappointed that I was placed in Bangalore for my first assignment right out of the academy even though people said otherwise. It is not like there is no crime in the city or state as well, what CBI officers mean when there is no crime in Bangalore or they should retire when they are transferred to Bangalore is that the crimes in Bangalore are all petty crimes that the local police departments can handle and it does not need CBI's help. But one case that changed everything was my first case, no one knew that the city would be turned upside down.

Rajendra Sir came back to the office after he had disappeared for a while, he went with some jarring news about the victim's wife which would have implicated her as a suspect but for some reason, Rajendra sir was convinced it was not her. When asked why he thought so all he said was that she was not in the city to commit the crime and her "childhood friend" was not that brave or resourceful to do something like that, and she would kill him for her infidelity it wouldn't be by torturing the man. Which made sense, but it still gave her motive to kill her husband due to which we could not completely rule her out as well.

There is still one stone unturned that was the victim's best friend and only friend. Madhav, we were able to call and asked him to meet us at the office. This time Abhishek sir and Damini ma'am went ahead with the interview.

<<Interrogation Room>>

"Hello, Mr. Madhav I am detective Damini and this is detective Abhishek, do you know why we have called you here."

"Yeah, it was something about Satish, right?"

"Yes, I'm sorry to inform you but Mr.Nair is no longer with us."

"How did it happen?" Madhav questioned as though he knew that Mr.Satish had died.

"That is what we are trying to figure out, what can you tell us about him ?"

"What do you want to know?"

"How did you meet Mr.Nair?"

"We met at school, we were in the same class I have known him the longest more than anybody."

"You don't seem too surprised over his death?"

"I have no idea how he died, but someone like him always got into trouble and poked his nose into things he shouldn't have."

"What do you mean."

"What, his wife didn't tell you, even when we were kids he had a knack for getting other people in fights, that was his bad side he looked like a decent man who minded his own business but he could read people in a matter of a few minutes."

"Have you ever been to Mr.Nair's residence before he got married?"

"you want to know about the big ass metal door in his home office."

"Yes! what can you tell us about it."

"Initially he built it as a panic room in case of a home invasion or some calamity, but one day he brought people in to change the interiors of the room I just assumed that he wanted to add something to the room maybe spruce it up."

"You never suspected how he got soo much money?"

"Of course, I did think he might have got himself involved with some unsavory people but he told me that cyber security pays a lot of money in this day and age."

"This thing you mentioned about his bad side, did he do something like that recently."

"He had control over himself and didn't bother people in the past few years, his marriage was also going well I assumed he had stopped but a couple of weeks back when we were drinking at a bar he instigated a fight between two rival teams of a cricket game that was being streamed."

"Last question, where were you on the night of the question between 10 and 2?"

"I was at home sleeping with my wife."

"Anyone else can corroborate that for us."

"You can check the security cameras installed outside my house nobody stepped in or out of the house."

"Thank you for your time and don't leave the city."

<<Meeting Room>>

We were all sitting with a puzzled look on our faces, a man with clear issues and a very complex nature was murdered and we had no clear suspects or leads to follow. I was probably the most clueless person in the room, it was my first case and I didn't want to let it go unsolved. I wanted to help but I was stumped, same as the rest of the more experienced detectives. Rajendra Sir had gone for a meeting with the high command so we had no idea what to do, at the same time Krithi ma'am also was trying to verify if the security footage we got from Mr.Madhav.

After about 35mins or so, Rajendra sir walked into the office his facial expression usually could not be read at all, but now I was able to see that he had some good news for us and that was seen by the grin on his face.

"I have some good news and bad news. What do you want to hear first?"He asked smilingly.

"Good news please, in this case hopefully something good comes out of it, the only thing we have seen is one dead-end after another."

"The good news is that the high command has seen this as a fact there is a crime in Bangalore that warrants the CBI's presence so we are getting new funding and we will be a completely new task force set up to ensure that this city is as crime-free as we all thought it to be."

"What is the bad news?". Abhishek sir asked with a lazy tone.

"We have to drop this case, as you said that it is one dead-end after another until we get something more solid we have to keep this case on the back burner."

"Sir this is probably the case of the year if we can solve it and this person who did this to the victim is probably a psychopath who is roaming free in the city."I had to protest.

"Can you find this nameless, faceless psychopath now in the city?"

"No sir."

"Then we are dropping this case. Luckily to get your mind off this case, we have been given another one, this is a clear sign of escalation of crime in Karnataka as a whole, we are going to Hubli in the morning so everyone, go home get some rest, and get ready we will be leaving in the morning."

Everyone left the room and as I stepped out the door Krithi ma'am entered the room the rest of them had already left. I stayed outside to see what they were discussing.

"Sir I went through the video sent by the victim's friend, the file is not doctored, but there is something weird about the footage of the house from two weeks ago. The footage of that day and the footage of the night of the murder are the same. Someone replaced the footage of the night of the murder with the footage from two weeks ago."

"Ok, Krithi we are stopping our investigation into this case, about the footage, keep this to yourself. Don't tell anyone about it and keep it out of the report as well."

"But sir this is something serious...."

"This is an order Detective Krithi, not a request."

"Yes Sir"

I have to find out what Rajendra sir is hiding and why he is so adamant that we drop this case.