The Present - Chapter 24

          Hello! Your late latif writer is back with an update! Was busy in some college stuff. Isilye late hogaya. Sorry. But iske pehle ki aap dab meri band bajao for being so late mai bhaag rahi hu. Chappy ke baad aaugi! Bye bye...

                             Chapter 24

*Next day, morning*

              Daya by now had already enquired with all the officers who had ever worked on Taipan gang's case. Except for one... That is ACP Prayduman! As he was also one of them who had worked on the case of Abhay and his gang for a few days. And in those very days he had gone for that encounter getting the information about a deal that was to take place. He couldn't talk to ACP sir and as it is even if he could, ACP sir were unlikely to tell him anything about it. Hence he decided to meet Insp. Rathore. Insp. Rathore who was a close subordinate of ACP sir and was also assisting him on that case. (He was also ready to give a statement in court ACP sir's favour, Refer Chapter - 18)
              He reached Insp. Rathore's house and rang the doorbell. Soon Insp. Rathore came and opening the door welcomed him inside.

Rathore - Aao Daya... Kya baat hai? Achanak subah phone kiya ki milna chahte ho?

Daya - Ha Rathore ji. Woh kuch puchna tha.

Rathore - Aree pehle baitho toh sahi. (Daya settled down on the couch) Kya loge? Chai coffee?

Daya - Thank you... Par abhi kuch nahi.

Rathore - Acha toh phir batao kya baat hai? Pareshan lag rahe ho?

Daya - Ha woh mujhe apse Taipan gang ke bare mai baat karni thi. Uss din, app log unhi ko pakad ne gaye the na?

Rathore - Ha... Gaye toh unhi ko pakad ne the. Par achanak?

Daya - Nahi woh bas aise hi. Apke paas uss gang ki jo bhi information ho kya app please mujhe de sakte hai?

Rathore - Information... Kuch zayada khabar nahi hai mere paas. Actually woh case kuch dino pehle hi liya tha ACP sir ne kudh ke under. Humne uss case pe kaam chalu hi kiya tha ki sir ke khabari ne woh information di ki uss gang ki koi deal hone wali hai. Khabar pakki thi toh hum waha raid karne chale gaye. Aur ussi mai Mr. Arun aur Miss Gayatri ki maut ho gayi, toh woh case toh baju mai hi reh gaya. Aur uske baad authorities ne as a departmentmental action uss case se hume hata diya tha. Uske baad humme se kisi ne bhi kabhi uss case pe kaam nahi kiya. Toh information toh humare paas bhi bas utni hi hai jitni ki case files mai!

Daya - Hmm... Par phir bhi aisa koi baat jo case files mai mention na ki gayi ho? Kisi bhi reason se? Koi information, koi secret?

Rathore - Aisi toh koi baat nahi...

              And stopping in mid sentence he suddenly got up from his place and walked upto his bookshelf that was present in the same room. He started removing books one by one and was randomly shuffling its pages as if searching for something that was kept between them.
              Daya kept looking at him in confusion but maintained silence letting him continue with his work. While Insp. Rathore after desperate searching of 10 minutes came back to where Daya was sitting with a book in his hand and removed one small folded paper from it. Handing it over to Daya he said...

Rathore - Yeh lo!

Daya - Yeh hai kya?

Rathore - Yeh uss gang ka ek coded message hai. Jo woh ek dusre ko bejh rahe the aur mere khabri ne bich mai se nikal liya tha. Actually jab hume yeh case mila tha tab hum sabne, sabse pehle apne sare khabriyo ko iss gang ke piche laga diye tha! Ab case milne ke kuch hi dino baad yeh sab ho gaya! Hum sab toh phir Mr. Arun aur Miss Gayatri ke matter mai involved the. Hum mai se kisi ne uss gang par dhayan nahi diya. Par uss encounter ke agle hi din mere ek khabri ke haat yeh letter laga. Usse pata tha ki mai abhi inn chizo par dhayan nahi de sakta! Waise bhi hum sabko suspend kar diya gaya tha. Toh usne yeh letter mujhe tabhi nahi diya. Jab hume court ne clean chit di uske baad usne mujhe yeh diya. Par ab woh case humare under nahi tha toh yeh information mere kaam ki nahi thi. Jis officer ko yeh case transfer kiya gaya tha usko maine contact bhi kiya tha but he was not even interested! Yeh letter mere paas hi reh gaya!

             Daya now opened the small piece of paper that had now turned yellow with time and found written inside as 'Imprint 26 10'. After gazing at the paper for a minute but not being able to make out what it meant Daya looked at Insp. Rathore who nodded his head in 'no' indicating he had no idea what this was about.

Daya - Apne iske bare mai ACP sir ko bataya tha?

Rathore - Nahi Daya. Actually mai sir ko inn sab matters mai involve nahi karna chahta tha wapis. Tumse behtar kon samjh sakta hai ki unko koi aisi cule mile aur woh uske aage koi action na le aisa toh ho nahi sakta! No matter woh tabhi hi suspension se wapis aaye ho! Woh ajj bhi aise hi hai ajj se 27 pehle bhi aise hi the! Toh woh phirse iss case pe lage yeh mai nahi chahta tha isilye maine iss letter ke bare mai kabhi unhe bataya hi nahi.

Daya - Sahi kiya

             Said Daya smiling lightly. Knowing it very well that what Insp. Rathore said was absolutely correct.
             Thanking him for the help Daya soon left his house and drove to a nearby park. The park was a silent one and settling down on the soft grass, Daya got to the work of decoding the letter...

Daya - (in his thoughts) Yeh 'Imprint' ka kya matlab ho sakta hai?

             Searching for half an hour he came to a conclusion that 'Imprint' was actually the name of a magazine. A French magazine named 'Imprimer' that is the translation of Imprint in French. With lots of struggles he then searched for the March edition of the year 1991. The year and month of the encounter. He came to a conclusion the magazine has to be same month and year edition because the date was not mentioned in the letter, as it should have been, if it was some other date. After getting the soft copy after calling the printer's headoffice in France, he checked out the 26th word of every page for first 10 pages and wrote the first letter of all those words together. He was just trying different ways in what '26 10' could be. By checking the lines, pages, words etc and finally understood that it was actually coded this way. It came out as 'kaamhogaya' meaning 'kaam hogaya'.
             So one of the goons, of the gang that was encountered and lost its 12 people along with failure of the deal, just a day ago sends a message of 'kaam hogaya'? It did ring a bell in Daya's head.

Daya - (to himself) Kya kaam hogaya? Inki deal toh fail ho gayi thi aur saath hi inke gang ke 12 log bhi mare gaye the! Toh phir agle din issi gang ka ek admi yeh message kaise bejh sakta hai ki kaam hogaya? Kahi koi dusra kaam toh nahi? Par usually aisi gangs koi bhi 2 deals yaa koi 2 important kaam ek saath nahi karte. Just in case raid ho jaye yaa unki information leak hojaye... Toh phir? Ek minute! What if woh encounter unke plan ka hi jissa tha? Ho sakta hai ki Mr. Arun ko dhamki dene wala yeh Abhay hi ho! Waise bhi woh picture dekh ke pata chalta hi hai ki Abhay Mr. Arun ko kafi kareeb se janta tha. Toh phir ho sakta hai ki unhe dhamki dekar uss raste par bulane wala bhi wahi ho aur apni hi gang ko waha bejh kar uska encounter karwane ka plan bhi uska hi ho? Par uski Mr. Arun se kya dushmani ho sakti hai? Kyu itna bada plan banaya hoga unse Mr. Arun ko marne ke liye? Akhir yeh Abhay ka rishta kya hai Mr. Arun ke saath?

               So after so much of hardwork he was once again back to the same question. 'What was the relation between Mr. Arun and Abhay?'
               Sitting in his car he left a sigh and turning on the ignition left towards Pune... He did not have any other option and had to search through The Malhotra Mansion to find out the relationship between Mr. Arun and Abhay. And no matter he had got a warning from IG today itself he decided to go there and search through. Cause for him... Life of his brother and the pride of his father was far more important than the job that earned him both of them.
               After a drive of three and half hours he reached in front of Malhotra Mansion. It was already evening by then. He stared at the lost glory of the mansion under the faint sunlight of the setting sun and then making sure he was not being followed or seen by anyone, made his way inside. Searching through the living room first he then moved towards Mr. Arun's bedroom. He searched throughly but again failed to find something of interest. Soon he had gone through almost whole of the mansion and at last entered the store room. In the store room filled with spider webs and dirt. Coughing at times he slowly moved in between the shelves that were filled with some unused items like registraters, some utensils, big containers etc. He looked through all of them but couldn't find any important thing. At last he went near the small wooden cupboard that was kept in one corner. The cupboard shuddered as he pulled it open with and quickly Daya started searching through some files and papers that were kept inside. First going through the top two shelves he came to the third one and there he found few albums kept on his right hand corner. He opened them and saw that they were family albums of Mr. Arun. There were various pictures from all phases of his life but what was important to Daya was that there were few pictures of Abhay in those albums. Once again where Mr. Arun and Abhay seemed very close. He kept the albums aside and searched through the old documents kept on the bottom shelf. There, he found one old marksheet, with its sides worn off with time. The markesheet was of standard 2nd. The name of the student being Abhay Malhotra! But it was the middle name that shocked Daya. Abhay and Mr. Arun shared the same middle name... That is Arun Virendra Malhotra and Abhay Virendra Malhotra. So both of them were brothers! Real brothers!

Daya - Toh Abhay, Arun ji ka bhai hai! Wohi bhai jiske bare mai Raghuveer ji ne bataya tha! Itna bada gangster... Jiske khilaf murder, kidnapping, extortion, drugs, smuggling na jane konsa charge nahi hai woh Arun ji ka bhai hai!

               Daya took a few moments to get out of the shock of this strange discovery that he had just made. And then collecting all the evidences he made sure that he didn't leave any mark of his presence in the mansion, left. He sat in his car and turning towards Mumbai started driving lost in his thoughts...

Daya - Ab chize kuch kuch samjh mai aa rahi hai... Arun ji ko dhamkiya milna... ACP sir ka Abhay ki gang, Taipan ke piche jaha... Arun ji ka ussi waqt ussi jagah par hona, jana woh encounter hone wala tha... Encounter ke agle hi din woh note ka milna jisme likha tha kaam hogaya! Jo sari link ab tak bikhri hui thi woh sari jakar iss Abhay se judti hai! I am pretty sure ki Mr. Arun ko dhamkiya yeh Abhay hi bijhwa raha tha! Aur yeh sab isilye kyuki Abhay shayad chahta hi yehi tha ki Mr. Arun mare jaye! Ussi ne Mr. Arun ko dhamki dekar uss raste par bulawaya hoga aur ussi ne apni hi gang ka encounter karwa diya information leak karke taki Mr. Arun ki mauti ho jaye aur koi uss par shak bhi na kare! Par woh aisa kyu karwayega? Usse isse kya fayeda ho sakta hai? Akhir apne hi bhai aur bhabhi ko marwane ke piche uska motive kya hoga?

             In the same thoughts Daya reached back Mumbai. It was about midnight by now and as he drove on the almost empty roads of the city he stopped at a nearby restaurant and grabbed something to eat as the last time he had food it was yesterday's dinner at Abhijeet's house and he required energy to be working the whole night after working for 24 hours, nonstop, already.
             He took not more than 5 minutes to finish the frankie he had brought and once again got back to his work. Tonight, he researched deep about Mr. Arun and Miss Gayatri. He studied every information available about them since their childhood. Basically he removed their 'kundli' in their words. He wanted to find out why could have Abhay made such a big conspiracy against his own brother. He could figure out only two possible reasons for the same. One, cause maybe Mr. Arun was also involved in Abhay's illegal activities and because of some disagreement Abhay got them killed. Second, maybe Mr. Arun was innocent and came to know about his brother's crimes and hence Abhay got him killed. Daya, even talked Advocate Raghuveer and got him to send him details of Mr. Arun's business. But he couldn't find any out of the business money or any out of proportion income or anything else that indicated towards part one of his two assumptions. It took him another two hours of research into Miss Gayatri's past which again led him to the same conclusion.
             Daya finally looked up, rubbing his eyes from the papers he was straining his eyes on, in the dim seat light of his car when he realised that it was already morning. He looked at his watch to see the time and said...

Daya - 7:30 baj gaye! Ajj toh court ki hearing hai. Chalo bhai Daya... Its going to be a long day ahead. Bas court jane se pehle ek kaam aur karna hai. Rahul se milna hai!

              He got down of his car and splashed some water on his tired eyes. Wiped his face clean and then called Rahul who was himself shocked to see Daya calling him...

Rahul - Hello...

Daya - Ha woh... Mujhe tumse milna hai. Kaha mil sakte ho?

Rahul - Apko mujhse milna hai? Kyu?

Daya - Kuch kaam hai tabhi bula raha hu na

           Daya couldn't hide his anger that came out as rudeness... But after a moment he took a sigh and said in a low voice...

Daya - Arya ke bare mai baat karni hai. Isilye bula raha hu. Zaruri hai!

Rahul - Kab milna hai sir? Aur kaha par?

Daya - Wahi milte hai jaha se yeh sab shuru hua tha. Marine drives pe...

Rahul - Theek hai sir. Shaam ko milna hai? Hearing ke baad?

Daya - Nahi nahi! Abhi milna hai! Tumhare ghar se 40 minute ka rasta hai na. Toh 1 ghante mai milo!

Rahul - Abhi? Sir ajj hearing hai. Apko bhi toh jana hoga na! Late ho jayege!

Daya - Rahul please baat ko samjho (once again anger controlling his tone) Its urgent!

            While Rahul replied thinking after a moment...

Rahul - Aata hu sir.

*After an hour and half*

            Daya was sitting on the concrete slab with his face in his hands. His eyes were closed being tired but still sleep was far away from those exhausted eyes. He was already having a severe headache but was jusy not ready to rest. He spread one hand in his hair messing them up and sighing he rubbed his eyes. He got up and buying one hot tea from a nearby vendor started waiting for Rahul as he stared into the depths of the ocean. He was lost in his thoughts when Rahul came there and called him from behind...

Rahul - Sir?

            Daya turned to face him and said

Daya - Aa gaye...

Rahul - Ji sir. Kya baat hai apne achanak bulaya?

Daya - Ha woh kuch baat karni thi.

Rahul - Hmm... Boliye...

Daya - (after a silence of a moment) Dekho mai baat ko ghumauga nahi. Arya ki jaan ko kathra hai!

Rahul - What? Yeh... Yeh apko kisne bola?

Daya - Woh sab chodo tum. Bas uska khayal rakhna. Aas paas nazar rakhna! Agar kabhi bhi kahi bhi koi bhi kathra nazar aaye toh turant mujhe inform karna!

Rahul - Par... Par yeh app... (After a moment he said with little doubt) Mai kaise maan lu ki app sach bol rahe hai?

Daya - (in angry grave tone) Behan hai woh meri! Bhale hi hum court mai ek dusre ke khilaf khade ho. Ek dusre se agree nahi karte par phir bhi woh behan hai meri! Aur nahi bhi hoti toh as a CID officer its my responsibility to make sure she is safe! Waise bhi mujhe kya fayeda hoga tumhe yeh bolke ki uski jaan ko kathra hai? Tum mujhe bas itna batao ki matter sambhaloge ki mai Purvi ko bolu uske saath rehne?

Rahul - (averting his gaze) Mai... Dekhta hu sir.

Daya - (nodding his head in a stern yes) Agar kuch bhi doubt ho toh turant mujhe inform karna.

Rahul - Par kathra hai kisse sir? Apke ACP sir toh lock up mai...

           A glare that he received from Daya's red eyes was enough to shut him up in mid sentence. While Daya pressed his fist on the concrete slab brusing his knuckles and noticing his action Rahul actually got a little scared. While Daya said gritting his teeth in anger...

Daya - Belive nahi hota mujhe ki Arya tum jaise cheap insan se dosti kar sakti hai! Aur tumhare sawalo ka jawab mai court mai dunga!

            And he crushed the paper cup in his hand spilling some of the left over tea on his own hand and then throwing away the cup in dustbin walked back to his car leaving Rahul standing at his place. Soon Rahul walked off to his own car and drove off.
            As Daya leaned on the bonnet of his car and took a few breaths to calm himself down he noticed something stuck on the front glass below the viper. Removing it he looked around to see who must have kept it but couldn't find anyone who he could keep a finger on and hence opened the note... What he saw inside shocked him to the core and mumbling 'Abhijeet' he instantly sat in his car and speed off like a bullet!

To be continued...

            Why did Daya sir utter Abhijeet and speed off? What happened to Abhijeet sir? And so many revelations... Where will they the to? Keep reading and reviewing to know more. Yes this one was a boring chapter. But i promise next would be very interesting! It would be full of duo and trio moments! So agar yeh sab chahiye toh jaldi jaldi review karo!