CHAPTER III
AT THE COFFEE TABLE
I can skip a meal or two but I cannot stay for long time without taking a cup of tea or coffee. When I was on an Australian tour with some of my friends for a few days, in October 2010, I used to slip from the company of my friends to have a cup of coffee at any roadside restaurant.
On the third day of my visit at around 5 PM when I dropped into a restaurant, I found the restaurant was full of customers. Except only one seat on a corner table, there was no vacant seat in the restaurant. Even on that table, a young lady, moderately beautiful from Indian subcontinent was sitting. I wanted to take a chance, ‘Is it vacant? May I sit madam?’
The young lady gave me a very surprised look and told, ‘Please sit down. Are you from India?’
‘Thank you, Madam. Yes, I am from New Delhi ( as now I am staying in Delhi for many years, I always say to a person on foreign soil that I am from Delhi instead of saying that I am from Assam). Are you also from India?’After sitting on the chair, I asked her. I want to be comfortable with the young lady as I did not have any alternative but to see her face as my seat was wall facing.
‘Yes, I was from India, precisely from Lucknow.’ With a vague voice she said. ‘But, I am surprised. How you are able to see me and make a conversation with me.’
Her answer clean bowled me; I was totally surprised to hear her statement. Before meeting the spirit of this lady, I met many spirits in India starting from my first encounter with Shruti Dawson. However, encounter with this lady was different from earlier encounters with spirits on many accounts. All my earlier encounters were taken place when no one present nearby me and after 9 PM only. But I met this lady in a crowded place and that too in broad day light. Further, I had never come across any spirit on foreign soil. That is the reason; her admission of being a spirit surprised me.
However, I understood the situation and quickly composed myself. Then, I said calmly, ‘Yes madam, I can see spirits. God has given me special power to see what others cannot. Probably, you may need my help and therefore, God has sent me to help you out.’
My answer made her very happy. In the initial years, I was little bit apprehensive, how to judge whom to help and whom not, how do I know who is good spirit and who is not. After two to three years due to my experience, now I think, I can judge which a fit case to be helped.
‘I am glad to know that you are in a position to help me. Anyway, I was Himadri Kashyap from Lucknow married to Manav Kashyap. Name of husband is Manav (human) but he is an Amanav (inhuman). It was him, who hired goons to kill me and coloured my murder as if it was a fall out of racial attack on both of us.’
‘What type of help I can provide to you in that case?’ I asked.
‘Police could not recover the murder weapon and so they could not pin point who were the attackers. Police finally closed the file as a racial hate crime.’ She tried to make me understand.
‘Can you elaborate the whole incident sequentially, so that I can help the police to nab the culprit and prove the crime before the court of law?’ I asked her to explain as I could not understand exactly how her husband organized the crime to mislead the police and other investigating officials.
She unfolded her story as given below:
Himadri, fondly called by her parents as Himu, was daughter of a very rich businessman of Lucknow. Though her parents were not in favour of pursuance of higher studies by Himu, her perseverance made her M. Tech in Information Technology (IT). In India, more a girl is educated; it would be more difficult to find a suitable groom for her. In her case also the parents, after a frantic search for a suitable boy for her daughter, they had to settle for Manav Kashyap, a B.Tech degree holder from an ordinary college of UP, having a modest financial background.
For their honeymoon, they went to Sydney and they liked the city. Both of them persuaded Himadri’s father to sponsor Manav for his Masters from Sydney University. Himadri’s father agreed to the proposal and they were sent to Sydney. Manav could arrange a job for him after he completed his masters. In the meantime, Himadri got a job in an Indian MNC and both of them settled down in Sydney.
Without showing any displeasure with Himadri, Manav hatched a plot to get rid of Himadri so that he could garner all insurance benefits and other properties in the name of Himadri. He contacted some underworld don through a friend to hire some goons to kill Himadri. During that period he was exhibiting extraordinary love for Himadri. Himadri was more than happy to get extra attention from her husband oblivious of her husband’s nefarious plan to kill her in cold blood.
On the fateful day, Manav took Himadri for sightseeing in the outskirts of Sydney. While coming back from the sightseeing two hugely built persons stopped their car and smashed the windowpanes of the car. Then, the goons attacked both of them. The goons first hit Manav and Manav fell unconscious. Seeing him unconscious she tried to cover him with her body to prevent further body blow to him. The goons then hit Himadri on her head. The goons did not stop hitting her till they were sure that she was dead.
After few minutes Police arrived when a passing vehicle informed about the attack. On arrival at the hospital, Himadri was declared brought dead; but Manav survived the attack. The attack was appeared to be racial one and police was investigating on that line. However, after two days police realized the killing of Himadri might not be due hate attack. One unknown eye witness over telephone informed police that though the attacker was wearing mask, he was talking with Manav after the attack. While looking at the medical report, for the first time police became more suspicious that the murder might not be a hate crime, but due to conspiracy hatched by her husband. The blow on Himadri’s scull was much more forceful compared to that on Manav. Actually Himadri got three nasty blows on her head which actually broke Himadri’s skull to pieces. On the other hand, the blow Manav got on his head was so light that the impact did not go beyond the skin of the head.
Police started investigation following the new angle, it might be a pre-planned murder which involved Manav. Manav was interrogated for hours but nothing could be extracted. They examined all his call records and asked Himadri’s family about any quarrel between Himadri and Manav. Himadri’s parent told categorically that Manav loved his wife very much and nothing unusual observed in last two years. According to them, both of them had excellent relation. Murder weapons or the attackers could not be traced even after two months of the murder. Finally, the police had to close the case as it might be a racial hate attack.
Actually what happened on that day and about the planning prior to her murder, only Himadri was able to know after her death. Manav arranged everything through his friend located at Lucknow. He arranged goons to execute the crime and he was supervising the execution without involving Manav at all. Even the goons did not meet Manav before and after the crime. They left Australia on the next day itself.
‘Now, you tell me, how you want to prove Manav’s involvement in the case?’I asked her after she finished her tragic story.
‘I know where the goons hide their blood stain clothes and the iron rod used in the murder case. By mistake one mobile phone through which the goons were in contact with Manv’s friend was left with the clothes. I shall give you the details of the place where they had hidden the clothes etc. From the mobile phone police can recover the call details of Manav and his friend. I am going to give the full address of his friend who is staying in Lucknow from where all of us hail.’
I appreciated her meticulous information to unearth the meticulous but heinous planning of Manav to kill her.
Before leaving Australia I posted a letter to police where details of the plot hatched by Manav, the place where the murder weapons etc. were hidden, full address of the friend of Manav who was the focal points for the goons and other details essential to solve the case, were elaborately written.
After three months I got a copy of a news paper where it was written that Himadri murder case had been solved and Manav was arrested. At the footnote
it was written the problem could be solved because of a letter written by an unknown person. Now police is investing role of the informer in the case. I hope they will not be able to find out who actually helped them to solve the case.
BEAUTIFUL GHOST