7:00 AM – 26th August, 2012
I was running hard on a treadmill to burn a few of the calories I had mounded in recent times, when a young guy drove my attention to the buzzing cell of mine. I saw – ‘Udaybhai AV Const’ Calling and intentionally didn’t picked up the call. I finished my round of working out in about forty five minutes; I was sweating like hell, I picked up the towel from the bag alongside my cell to check for the updates. I was bit astonished to see fifteen missed calls from Udaybhai. I immediately called him back to know whether there was something urgent, but I guess he was taking revenge this time around by not picking up my call. I tried it twice but the result was the same, I didn’t have the serenity to ring him fifteen times, thus threw my cell in the bag and moved for the home as the crow flies.
“Advik, come out fast Udaybhai is calling.” Mumma almost tried to shout as a bathroom singer in me was in full fledge.
“Ask him to hold on, out in a minute.” I said taking the bucket and emptying the whole at a go on my skull, I almost struggled to breathe for a moment or two with an impulsive flow of water.
“Yes Udaybhai, sorry I was at gym when u called, say now.” I picked the call in my towel only.
“It’s okay, listen now Sanjay sir is no more.” He sounded as bomb shelled as much as I felt listening to him.
I totally accept, in one’s life there always comes a time when he/she feels like stabbing his/her boss or pushing him/her down from the tenth, fifteenth or even twentieth floor or at least expects that he dies some abrupt death (if he/she is non-violent) and I also belonged to the same school of thoughts but still when I heard that, I was totally traumatized. There was a dead silence on the phone for a while, Udaybhai chortled to feel my presence after sometime.
“What the F**k are you talking?” I still wasn’t able to believe it.
“Quickly come to office, will let you know the whole story over here. Make it fast.” He disconnected the call, feeling the discomfort in me or trying to hide his own, I was shocked enough not to think about what it was.
As I reached office, there was hush over there; not much people were there but signs of panic, fret or perplexity were palpable on every face present. Udaybhai was sitting on his own desk, just on the left back desk of mine. He also looked in the same situation, lips sealed; eyes searching for some warmth, mind totally confused, almost body double to every other person present in the office.
“What exactly happened?” I asked pulling a chair
“Accident…!” I tossed a weird look at him as he finally spoke something.
“He was driving by S.G.Highway today morning around 5:00 for his routine work out at Rajpath Club. He was at good speed, when a dog raced around, he tried to save the dog and unluckily at the same time a truck was coming in the wrong side at a reasonably high speed, he lost control over his steering wheel and banged in. He died on the spot, as per the witnesses to the accident.” He slowly narrated what he has been hearing since the morning.
“Don’t even try to frighten me, if I will go down, quite a few people will be in problem including you and your god fathers out there. So don’t even dare talk to me like that. What do you think; I am some jack-a** of yours.”
As we were driving towards Sanjay sir’s place to attend the funeral, the abstract of the telephonic conversations I heard the other night outside the cabin knocked my head.
“Do whatever you want to do; I am not afraid of your futile coercion.”
“This cannot be purely a co-incidence. I firmly believe whether anyone else accepts it or not; this one isn’t the pure case of accident; particularly not after what I heard the other day at the cabin.”
My mind was thinking like that of ACP Pradyumna as I was sitting on the S.G.Highway alongside my cousin for the nice cup of tea. These thoughts have been trouncing my mind the whole day since I heard of it from Udaybhai.
“Wass the problem Lala..!” He asked me as I was stunned into silence; I slowly but surely narrated him the whole incidence. Lots of Oooss and aaahhhs came from his side during the narration; he has been (over) expressive since childhood.
“Look, I have a friend who is a PSI at Navrangpura Police Station, let’s talk to him. He might help you, if you don’t mind.” He said in assuring tone.
We took the bike, and drove our way out from, S.G. Highway to Navrangpura driving past ISRO, tall and sturdy Rani Laxmibai Statue to all time buzzing Municipal Market on C.G.Road. The atmosphere was soothing, it was around 9.30 P.M., mild drizzle was going on and with not much traffic on the road I thoroughly enjoyed the ride as we went inside the police station parking the bike on the road-side.
“Ahmedabad se Mumbai jaane wali Duronto Express Platform No.2 se 11:45 ko niklegi…!” A Lady in the very mind-numbing voice and manner made the announcement as I was tumbling down the stairs to reach at the Platform No.2
I checked for my ticket and the chit given by the PSI at the Navrangpura Police Station. It went like this: Sub-inspector Nirang Dave. Phone no. 9623***203.
I found my seat, conversation between me and the Sub-Inspector started to re-appear against me as I thought, hope I am not doing any mistake just on hypothetical scenarios in my mind but the very next moment it vanished, as I tickled with the chit PSI gave to me.
It was drizzling out; both me and my cousin were half drenched, as we went in my cousin introduced me to a young guy in his uniform, sitting on a wooden chair.
“Hi, I am Advik.” I formally introduced.
“Hi.”
I explained the whole story to him right from the IT Raid to the Phone Call Conversation I had listened to what I felt about it not being accident and something else.
“Look Advik, I am very good friend of Mayank and I don’t want you to take on any other track. I have heard of the case and the PI who went through the case is a good friend of mine, he also told me that it was purely an accident case. It’s merely a co-incidence that all these scenarios have got clubbed together. Plus whatever you said is based on theory of probability, it may be right may not be. And the odds against are pretty much on the cards as of now.” He was very young guy yet he had very calm & mature personality; I felt that as he explained everything to me.
“I have Phone Number of the person, he talked with that day; here it is.” I said handing over the chit to him.
“How did you have this?”
“Actually, the person working in the IT at our company, Darshil Trivedi is a very good friend of mine. And it wasn’t a big deal getting a number from the phone manager- software we use to manage the phone calls.” I said with the blink of an eye.
“Look, Advik I definitely can’t help you on the records in any manner, case is already closed. As you are insisting much off the records I can help you. The number you gave to me is of Mumbai. I have a very good friend of mine who is the PSI at Mumbai, I will give him the call and he will help you getting in touch with this person. Except that I can’t do anything else, I am sorry.”
“Arey, that will be enough, thanks a bunch. Can you please give the name and contact number of the friend you said about. And please don’t forget to call him, thanks again.” I said; he handed over the chit to me.
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