In the Name of God

by Ravi Subramanian

  Standing next to the granite steps, Vikram Rai was speculating about their similarity to the steps inside the vault area of the temple when his phone rang. It was DGP Krishnan.

  ‘I need to speak with you, in person,’ Krishnan said. ‘Can you come over to the HQ?’

  ‘Now?’ Vikram asked him. ‘Is it okay if I come after we’ve shut shop here? Say around 6.30 p.m.?’

  ‘Sure,’ Krishnan agreed. He hung up the phone and turned to Kabir. ‘He’ll come at 6.30 p.m.’

  ‘We have spoken to everyone except him and Thirumanassu. How long will you avoid interrogating the king? He is probably the one person who knows everything that is going on.’

  Krishnan waved his hand dismissively and walked away. ‘Let it go. Interrogating the king in this environment will be next to impossible. We’ll need state sanction for that. Something we will never get.’

  The meeting with Vikram Rai that evening was cordial.

  ‘Damp squib!’ Kabir said when he left. ‘Bloody waste of time.’

  Madhavan, who had stayed away from the meeting, walked into the room. He looked at Krishnan and said, ‘I want to take Radhakrishnan Nair to Chennai, for further interrogation. I need a transit remand. I hope I have your permission.’

  Krishnan glared at him. ‘Absolutely not!’ he spat and strode away, leaving an irritated Madhavan with Kabir.

  76

  While Vikram was meeting Krishnan and Kabir in the police headquarters, Divya was sitting with Nirav in his hotel room. She had decided to stay in Thiruvananthapuram after Subhash Parikh’s body was discovered.

  ‘Aunty called again,’ she complained. ‘Why doesn’t she call you?’ She had become very irritable of late and it showed in the tone of her conversations. Nirav put it down to the stress of the circumstances and tried to be considerate towards her. He walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulder.

  ‘About the property?’ he asked, dropping a kiss on her forehead.

  Divya smiled. It wasn’t something she did a lot these days. ‘Yes. It’s harassment! I don’t understand why she wants to sell the property only to you. This time I told her to go ahead and sell it to anyone she wants to if she doesn’t hear from you.’

  ‘She is alone, beta.’ Nirav tried to calm her down. ‘We have a responsibility towards her.’

  ‘Yesterday she became hysterical. I don’t know what the problem was.’

  ‘Poor thing. She must be missing Akhil Bhai and Ankit.’

  ‘Why does she want to sell it to you and not to anyone else?’

  ‘It is a long story, Divya. There was a time when Akhil Bhai wanted to sell the property and move to the BKC Diamond Bourse. At that time, he was getting a good price for the Zaveri Bazaar property. But I convinced him against doing that. And then property prices crashed. His wife blamed me for it. She holds me responsible for convincing Akhil Bhai to stay back in Zaveri Bazaar.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘I guess she is worried about her future now. I had told them at the time that if he stayed in the Bazaar instead of shifting to the bourse, I would make sure he didn’t lose money on the sale of his property no matter when he sold. I even told them that I would buy it, that too at pre-2011 prices. Now that the widow is trying to get a grip on her life and consolidate her finances, I suppose she wants her pound of flesh.’

  ‘Why would you commit to something like this?’

  ‘Because he stayed back on my word! I didn’t want him to go, he had been my neighbour for over four decades in that congested office. I could have bought it then, but I didn’t want to expand at the time. Nor did I want anyone else to come in. Having someone there whom you can trust is additional security. We have crores of diamonds lying there. Besides, had he gone, a number of other merchants would have left with him. The unity of Zaveri Bazaar was at stake. I couldn’t have let him go.’ He walked to the table, picked up a bottle of water and took a long swallow. He was thirsty. ‘In any case you know the details. Don’t you? You saw how it blew up when we went to the prayer meeting for Gopal Shah. You were the one who came to my rescue that day. Didn’t you?’

  ‘Things would have been very different had Ankit been there.’

  ‘True.’

  ‘So what will you do about the property?’

  ‘If she asks you again, tell her that I will buy it. At whatever rate she thinks is reasonable. I don’t have a choice. I made a promise.’

  ‘Okay, Dad.’ She got up to leave. At the door she looked around and said, ‘This room is bigger than the earlier one. No? They should have given you this room in the beginning itself. It is quite comfortable. And your cold too seems to be under control.’

  77

  ‘Nair seems to be a part of a larger network which smuggles artefacts. He is lying.’ Madhavan was not happy that his request to take Nair to Chennai had been scuttled by Krishnan. ‘That guy Krishnan, is he working for the police department or the king?’

  ‘Well . . .’ Kabir hedged. He understood Madhavan’s frustration. ‘You don’t need his nod to arrest Nair. Just get a court order. He will be forced to cooperate with you.’

  The two of them were waiting outside Krishnan’s cabin. Krishnan had just got another call from his wife, Sundari, and was speaking to her. In the short time that Kabir had worked alongside Krishnan, he had seen the stress on the home front increase several fold. The investigation into the two murders had been keeping him away from home. His wife’s depression had intensified as a result. Husband and wife had been speaking for over thirty minutes, and Krishnan was still at it. Kabir and Madhavan were on their second cup of coffee.

  ‘Why does he have a separate phone for his wife?’

  ‘So that she can reach him at all times. There are times when he might switch off his office cell phone, especially when he is in meetings, but his personal phone is always on. That number’s only for his family.’

  ‘I am sure he is having an affair.’ Madhavan chuckled.

  ‘At this age. He is almost sixty?’

  ‘So what?’ Madhavan asked. ‘Film stars marry at sixty all the time. Why can’t police officers have affairs? All of us are smart and fit.’ He patted his 42-inch potbelly affectionately.

  ‘Shut up, Madhavan!’ Kabir chided. ‘Not everyone who has a second phone is like Subhash Parikh, leading two lives.’

  Madhavan laughed.

  ‘Who is leading two lives here?’

  The question startled Kabir and Madhavan. Krishnan stood in the doorway.

  ‘He says you are leading a dual life.’ Kabir pointed at Madhavan, earning a glare from him.

  ‘Me?’ Krishnan’s face was a mix of anger and embarrassment.

  Kabir burst out laughing. ‘The life of a devoted husband and a tough policeman. It’s tough to balance, isn’t it?’

  Krishnan smiled at Kabir’s comment. ‘I’m sorry to have kept you guys waiting for so long. Come, let’s go.’

  ‘I just spoke to Commissioner Iyer in Chennai.’

  ‘I am quaking in my boots already.’ Krishnan smirked.

  ‘He says that if Kerala Police doesn’t cooperate, we will file in the court for custody.’

  Krishnan didn’t respond. He sat down with a sigh.

  ‘Look here, Inspector.’

  ‘DIG,’ Madhavan corrected.

  ‘Yes, yes, that too . . . This is one problem I can do without. If we arrest him now word will spread. A few fingers will be pointed at Dharmaraja Varma. His followers, whose numbers are significant, might feel compelled to protest, and not necessarily peacefully. A potential law and order situation is the last thing I need.’

  ‘So what do we do? He is a suspect in a case Tamil Nadu Police is investigating. A suspected criminal wanted for smuggling treasure which belongs to the nation.’

  ‘Okay, here is what we will do. Give it a week. Maybe two. Let this case cool down a bit. And then we will do what it takes to hand him over to you guys.’

  ‘I think that is fair,’ Kabir said before Madhavan c
ould refuse.

  Madhavan just nodded. ‘I will speak with the commissioner.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Krishnan said as he stood up. ‘I have a meeting with the chief minister. I’ll come back and talk to you.’

  78

  Kabir used the time Krishnan was away to visit Kannan’s wife. It was the first time someone from the team investigating the murders was meeting her. She had been in the hospital under observation for several days. Kannan’s death had sent her in a downward spiral of grief and depression which had affected her health severely. She had returned from the hospital for home care only recently.

  Kabir was not allowed into the house. Although he was told that the family was in mourning and hence he couldn’t come inside, he knew the real reason was different. It was the house of a chaste Hindu. Allowing a Muslim male inside the house was not acceptable. While Kannan’s wife seemed to be a fairly forward-looking woman, it was the other members of the joint family she lived in who got their way.

  ‘Do you suspect anyone?’ Kabir asked her after the initial round of introductions was done and condolences had been offered and accepted.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Did your husband have any enemies? Any feuds within the family?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Could there be any reason why someone would want him out of the way? Any business dealings gone sour? Any loans not repaid?’

  ‘No.’

  Kabir was a bit taken aback at her cold responses. He had expected her to be eager to share everything she knew with the police, but she seemed reluctant to give anything other than monosyllabic responses.

  ‘We are here to help you.’ Kabir tried to convince her.

  ‘I don’t think she believes you,’ someone said from behind him.

  Kabir turned towards the door and saw Rajan standing there, hand on the door frame, folded dhoti landing just above his knees. It was clear he had been listening to their conversation.

  ‘We are not here to talk to you, Mr Rajan,’ Kabir snapped. ‘Please leave us alone.’

  ‘Well, she refuses to talk to you unless her lawyer is present,’ Rajan said categorically.

  Furious, Kabir got up and stalked over to him. When he was within sniffing distance, he whispered, firmly, ‘I’m sure you would not want her to know about your relationship with Kannan.’

  ‘Be my guest, tell her.’ Rajan smiled. ‘Do you think I don’t know you guys? I couldn’t leave that Achilles heel unattended, could I?’ He walked up to Kannan’s wife and stood next to her. ‘She knows who Kannan was.’

  Kabir didn’t like what he heard. ‘Don’t you want your brother’s murderers to be brought to book?’

  ‘I do. But how can I trust you?’

  Kabir looked around the room. ‘I don’t see anyone else here,’ he taunted.

  ‘I don’t need to trust anybody,’ Rajan said vehemently. ‘She made that mistake once.’ He pointed to Kannan’s wife.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘The day you guys called me to the police headquarters, your guys landed here.’

  ‘Our guys?’ Kabir was surprised.

  ‘Yes, your guys.’

  ‘But no one from our team has been to talk to Kannan’s wife. We were waiting for her to be in a position to talk.’

  ‘See. Obviously you are not in the loop. If no one told you about it, then how can you trust them? And if you can’t, how can you expect us to?’

  Kabir was taken aback. So someone was playing games. Was it Krishnan? If Kannan’s wife had already been interrogated, why had he been kept in the dark? Kabir was upset—more angry than upset. The behaviour of Kerala Police had caused him extreme embarrassment. It was unlikely that the police would have questioned her without Krishnan’s sanction. And if Krishnan hadn’t told him about it, it was clearly with the intent to hide it. Why would he want to hide anything unless he wanted to protect someone?

  Kabir mellowed down after Rajan talked tough with him. In this case, particularly because it was so much in the limelight, it was important that he tread carefully. ‘Can we just speak to her for a few minutes? If she could just tell us what she said during the earlier meeting, that will be fine.’

  ‘Spare her the harassment. I’ll tell you what you need to know. All she told them was that Kannan had no enemies. He was a very friendly guy. Everyone who knew him, everyone in town loved him. He never cared about money. If he did, he wouldn’t be happy being an autorickshaw driver. That’s why the gold you recovered from his autorickshaw, in my lunch bag, doesn’t make sense. If he knew that I was stealing gold, especially from the temple, he would have personally delivered me to the police. The day he died . . . Well, the day he was killed he had called his wife and told her that he had seen something which was damning. When she asked what it was he said he was going to see Dharmaraja Varma and would tell her about it when he came home.’

  ‘Dharmaraja Varma?’ So that’s why Krishnan had not told him about the questioning.

  ‘Yes, Dharmaraja Varma. That was the last time she heard from him. The next morning, his body was found.’

  ‘When he didn’t come back home that night, didn’t she find it suspicious?’

  ‘No. It is very normal for autorickshaw drivers to ply the whole night and return in the morning.’

  ‘Did he tell his wife what it was that he had seen? What he found necessary to share with Dharmaraja Varma.’

  ‘The other men spent a lot of time questioning and cross-questioning her. But no. He had told her that he would come home and share it with her. All he told her was that it was shocking.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Thank you, Mr Rajan.’ Kabir got up, bid goodbye to Rajan and to Kannan’s wife who had been a silent witness to their conversation, offered her condolences again and left.

  He had to confront Krishnan.

  79

  DGP Krishnan had not yet returned from his meeting with the chief minister when Kabir reached the police headquarters. While he waited in Krishnan’s office, he went over the sequence of events in his mind. His first meeting with Krishnan, the latter being too friendly with him, happily handing over the case to the CBI, involving him from the initial investigations, his resistance to the king being questioned, hiding behind law and order issues. All of these had seemed reasonable at the time. But now, when he looked back on them in light of his meeting with Kannan’s wife, it all appeared to be a carefully thought-out, well-executed plan. That the case would be passed on to the CBI was a known thing. By cooperating fully, Krishnan made sure that he remained involved in the investigation. Was he the mole in the system? Could he trust Krishnan? How much should he share with him? Thus far they had worked as a team. What now?

  The door opened and Krishnan walked in. ‘You wanted to bring in Dharmaraja Varma, right?’

  Kabir nodded, unsure of where the DGP was going with this.

  ‘I mentioned it to the chief minister.’

  Kabir didn’t respond.

  ‘He hesitated, but eventually agreed to it. His only condition was that we do not summon him here, or question him in the temple.’

  Kabir was stumped by this sudden change in stance. He didn’t know how to react. ‘Then?’ was all he could say.

  ‘He thinks we should do it in Thirumanassu’s palace, away from the public eye. We can’t be seen to be questioning a man of god. And we’ll have to leave when Dharmaraja Varma tells us to.’

  ‘Is this an interrogation or a media interview?’ Khan rolled his eyes.

  ‘Think of it however you want. This is the best you’re going to get!’ Krishnan ended the discussion.

  ‘Let’s do it.’

  Something was better than nothing. He would at least get a chance to evaluate Dharmaraja Varma’s body language, if not anything else. Criminals, not the hardened ones, often gave it all away in their body language. It was often not about what they said, but how they said it.

  ‘Great. I will set it up. Let me ca
ll Thirumanassu. It has to be just the two of us. I did it only for your peace of mind. I am convinced that you are on the wrong track. But unless you get it out of your head that Dharmaraja Varma has some role to play in the murders, you won’t be able to focus on the true perpetrator.’

  ‘Well, since you know so much already, maybe you can share it with me.’ Kabir fired his first salvo. The probable interrogation of the king had confused matters. If Kannan’s wife’s interrogation was a negative for Krishnan, getting permission from the chief minister to question the king almost nullified it.

  ‘What?’ Krishnan raised his eyebrows.

  Kabir rose from the sofa. ‘Why didn’t you tell me that you sent a team to investigate Kannan’s murder and interrogate his wife?’

  Krishnan looked at Kabir, shocked. ‘What!’ he said, his voice barely a whisper.

  ‘I went there today. Met his wife. The day we met Rajan here, a Kerala Police team met the wife and interrogated her.’