CHAPTER IV
SCHOOL OR HOME
She was a classmate of my niece Anita. She visited my home also a few number of times when I was in Guwahati. She was to appear Class-XII in 2004. But to the stress of the examination she committed suicide a couple of days before the examination had started. The whole family was devastated. As I was transferred from Guwahati in 2003, at the time of accident, I was not in Guwahati. Therefore, I could not meet the family to offer my condolence at that time.
She, Sangeeta was the eldest daughter of Mazumdar family. She had a brother who was two years’ younger and a sister seven years’ younger than her. Being the eldest daughter she was loved by her parents and other relatives also. Therefore, at her death, blame games started among many stakeholders. Many blamed her parents for high expectations, many blamed her school, many blamed her peer groups and some even blamed the tutorial house. But none could find out actually why she had committed suicide.
When after one year, I visited the family, they almost recover from the tragedy and as usual they started their forward journey. After half an hour when I was about to leave their house, spirit of Sangeeta called me, ‘Uncle, I want to have a talk with you! I know, you can hear my voice.’
I looked back; Sangeeta was standing behind her mother. I signalled her to follow me so that we can have a detailed conversation away from her near and dear. Sangeeta followed me as I said good bye to her family.
“Can we sit in a secluded place so that we can have a talk without any interference from anyone?’After crossing her boundary I asked her.
‘We can sit at the bank of Brahmaputra, though there will be lot of people, nobody cares who talks with the wave or on his mobile!’ She told with disgust.
I sat on a staircase leading to the river. Sangeeta also sat beside me.
‘I do not know why you have done that! Rather there is divided opinion on reason of suicide. You are the only person, who can tell me the reason.’ I looked at her face.
‘Uncle, I did not commit suicide!’She said with a void voice.
‘What you are saying! Police had already closed the case as they did not find anything suspicious and your family also never objected to that.’ I remarked.
‘That is the crunch. My family did not object because they were involved in the crime. Actually my father had killed me and my mother knew about it. She kept mum to save her husband and her married life.’
‘What you are saying! All know that you were very close to your father. Why he would kill you?’I was surprised to hear her statement.
Then I asked, ‘Is it a case of honour killing? But in Assam it is very uncommon.’
‘First, let me clear your doubt about my closeness to my so called father. He was not my real father, he was my step father. When my father became a martyr fighting with militants in Jammu Kashmir before my birth, his cousin married my mother to grab all the monetary benefits given to my mother. My mother was given a job in Assam police by Assam Government as a compensatory ground. Though similar offer was given by the Ministry of Defence, she preferred to join Assam Police.
My so called father is nothing but a parasite on my mother. Officially he is a contractor. Practically he does not have any income; but maintains a lavish life style on my father’s money. In public he always showed love for me as a father; but never loves me. But as I grew up his behaviour changed and he looked me as a prey for his unfulfilled desire. He started molesting me in some or other pretext. I told my mother about his advances, but she ignored it by saying that I was misunderstanding him.
Just few days before my final XII, he mixed some sedative in my supper and he raped me whole night. My mother also knew that. When I recovered from the ill affect of the sedative, I threatened him that I would tell my grandfather who stays at Dibrugarh. He disconnected our phone line and snatched away my mobile phone. Whole day I was under constant observation so that I cannot contact anybody. They had again forcefully given me some more sedatives and I almost became unconscious. On that very night I was hanged to death and deliberately had given an impression as if I committed suicide. The so called my father was emotionally charged before the public that all the people known to us were sympathetic towards him. Police were told that I was habitual drug user and I was under tremendous pressure due to examination and they also complained against the tutorial house that they used to give all the students unnecessary pressure for doing good results. As my mother is also working in police, it was easier for them to convince the police to close the case as a mere suicide case. Now can you help me to get justice?’
She was looking to me with lot of hope in her eyes. But I did not have a readymade answer to her query.
‘I cannot assure anything right now. I shall talk to Mriganka Choudhury, SP, fortunately for us he is a friend of mine. Please meet me tomorrow evening.’
Mrganka was my classmate and recently he had joined as Superintendant of Police, Crime branch. When I narrated the whole story on the next day morning, he told, ‘Who will believe your ghost story?’
‘I do not know, whether there is some truth or not in her story; but you can verify two things very easily, whether Mr. Mazumder was her stepfather or not and whether the wife of Mazumder was a widow of a martyr. These facts were not known to me earlier and many people may not know these two facts even today.’ I pleaded.
‘Ok, I shall inform you today evening.’ He promised.
As per his promise, Mriganka telephoned me. ‘Hiranya, you are right, Mazumder was the stepfather of Sangeeta. Sangeeta’s grandfather knew about the strained relation between Sangeeta and her step father. I have already ordered to send the file to me. Let us see what I can do?’
‘Please do not refer my name anywhere because that will reduce my power to communicate with spirits.’ I requested him.
‘Ok, your name will not come anywhere. But for that you will also have to promise me that you will help me whenever I find difficulty in solving some very complicated murder cases.’ He wanted an assurance from me.
‘I shall gladly do that. You may ask for any help any time to give justice to the honest spirits. I am blessed with the power to help others only; not for fame or for my own benefit.’ I assured him.
After few months, Mriganka told me that he made a water tight case against Mr. Mazumder in Sangeeta murder case. Sangeeta’s mother is also put under suspension.
As per my promise, I also helped Mriganka to solve two very complicated murder cases in last few years.
BEAUTIFUL GHOST