by UD Yasha
‘A vast array fatigue, heart palpitations and shortness of breath. Just two months back, her cardiologist told her mother to take extra care of Natasha. The blood pressure in her lungs was high,’ I said.
‘What about the girl who is still missing?’ Dr. Pande asked. ‘What’s her name?’
‘Rucha Sinha,’ I said. ‘She was a premature baby. She was a kilo and three hundred grams when she was born.’
Dr. Pande’s eyebrows went up in surprise. ‘That’s very low. An average baby weighs twice as much. What symptoms does she report?’
‘She has bronchopulmonary dysplasia which causes lung inflammation. She has had asthma since birth and has been generally weak since then.’
Radha said, ‘Her immune system has been weak since birth. She had to be hospitalized at least fifteen times before she turned five. Even now, she falls ill with the slightest change in the weather. She has a range of other health issues from constant cough and common cold to high fever.’
‘Can you tell me more about their parents?’ Dr. Pande asked.
‘Sumeira Gill, Natasha’s mother, was raped by her husband. She was conceived at the time of one such instance of abuse. He died from a heart attack. Manohar believed Sumeira killed her husband because she could no longer take his abuse. We only have circumstantial proof as of now. But Manohar seemed to have accepted my answer before he was shot. We’ve got a warrant to exhume her husband’s remains. An autopsy will tell us what exactly happened to him.’
‘What about Rucha Sinha?’
‘Malini Sinha had a good marriage. She was a well-known doctor before she had Rucha. But then she stopped practicing after Rucha was born.’
‘Why?’
‘Malini had a tough pregnancy. She had to take care of herself as well as Rucha. She began working again once Rucha was slightly older.’
Dr. Pande put a finger to his mouth. ‘They both had complications around the time of the birth of their child.’
‘Do you think that is connected to what is happening?’ I said.
‘I thought so too,’ Radha said. ‘But there’s nothing they have in common apart from having issues around their pregnancies. Their doctors were different. The hospitals were not the same. Even the exact issues they faced were different.’
Dr. Pande joined his palms in front of his face. I had seen him do the same thing when maa asked him for his opinion. I had been present for their early sessions. His face was determined as he narrowed his eyes.
Finally, he brought his hands down. He looked at me. ‘Siya?’ he said.
I stepped forward, raising my eyebrows.
He said, ‘Can we please talk privately?’
I nodded. ‘Sure,’ I said.
Dr. Pande said, ‘Let’s go to your mother’s room. ‘I think I may have figured out what’s happening.’
Chapter Fifty
I followed Dr. Pande to maa’s room. My heart thudded against my chest as I stared at him, wondering what he had learned.
‘Wait here for a minute,’ he said as he exited the room. ‘I need to confirm my theory. I’ll be back.’
He went downstairs. I went to the stairwell to try to hear what was happening. I heard him talking. But his voice was too soft for me to make anything out. Two minutes later, I heard Natasha start crying. Just as I started for the staircase, Dr. Pande returned. He held up his hand.
‘She’ll be alright,’ he said.
‘What happened to her?’ I said.
Dr. Pande did not answer my question. Instead, he went inside maa’s room. Only once I was inside the well-lit bedroom did I see that Dr. Pande had gone white. His forehead glazed with a thin layer of sweat.
‘You should sit for this,’ he said.
‘What’s the matter?’ I said. ‘You’re freaking me out.’
‘I’m also freaking out right now. I don’t know what’s going on or what to believe.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Those medicines that they ordered from the Dark Web…’ Dr. Pande massaged his temples. ‘I had heard about it. But I never thought I would ever see it actually happen,’ he said, shaking his head.
‘You thought you’d never see people ordering medicines from the Dark Web?’ I said, confused. My heart drummed faster with every passing second.
‘No, not that,’ his voice trailed off.
I had never seen Dr. Pande this upset and uneasy. He was usually the epitome of equanimity.
He continued. ‘The medicines ordered from the Dark Web are far from the right medicines you would give to children who are suffering from all the things you told me they had. ‘In fact…’ He stopped halfway and sat on the armchair next to the bed.
He took off his glasses and placed them on his lap. He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed his forehead with it. He said, ‘I don’t know how to say this. I’m sure of it though.’
‘Dr. Pande? Can you please tell me what’s happening?’
‘Those medicines don’t cure the ailments that those children have,’ he said and paused. He turned away and then looked back at me. His eyes were bloodshot. He said, ‘Those medicines are the reason those children are so sick.’
‘What?’ I was confused. What does that even mean?
‘The mothers…both of them, they’re poisoning their own kids. It’s a disorder. The condition is called Munchausen syndrome by proxy.’
It has a name?
My stomach sank. I could not feel my hands and legs. What was Dr. Pande talking about? Jay Parikh’s words came to me. You will come across hell on the Dark Web.
Dr. Pande said, ‘I know it exists but I never thought I would actually ever see it.’
Silence.
‘I checked Natasha’s blood pressure right now. It’s normal. Eighty by one twenty. She doesn’t have a high blood pressure problem. One of the medicines Natasha’s mother bought off the Dark Web was a blood thinner. Even if you give one tablet every two days to a child that young, her blood pressure will hit the roof. With regards to Rucha Sinha, her mother was buying a medicine called amiodarone which is used to treat abnormal heartbeats but a dosage of more than four hundred grams per day can lead to toxicity that causes scarring of the lung tissue. Her mother was a doctor, right? No way would she have given amiodarone to her child. I’m sure Rucha Sinha was weak at birth. But her mother made sure that she remained weak. Hell, she had made her weaker. Both the girls will have to go through a thorough medical check-up to find out exactly what was being given to them, what damage it has caused and how it can be reversed.
More silence.
‘The mothers?’ I said. ‘I can’t believe it. Why would a mother harm her own child? What’s the condition called again?’
‘Munchausen syndrome by proxy.’
‘What causes it?’
‘No one really knows. But there are theories. Mothers or caretakers could do it to get attention—as crazy as that may sound. When they harm their child in some way, they rush to get medical care for them. By taking them to the hospital, or telling other people about it, they feel like they are the centre of attention. Apart from that, they like it when people sympathize with them and praise how nice they are to be taking care of their children. People call such mothers selfless and loving. Little do they know….’ Dr. Pande’s voice trailed off.
He was pacing fast from one end of the room to the other while speaking. He went on. ‘Why would a mother harm her child? It’s a difficult question to answer. There are theories. Many times, the mothers who harm their own kids have been abused in some way. There are other risk factors like complicated pregnancies, physical harm and mental torture. These are just guesses made by psychiatrists like me. Studies have been conducted on the topic. But no conclusive reason has been found. It’s the darkest side of the human personality. The person who is supposed to protect you and love you unconditionally is the one who starts hurting you. The children are helpless. In many cases, they can’t even tell right from wrong. They don’t re
alize that something unusual is happening. They just listen to their mothers. Believing your parents, especially mothers is embedded in our genes. It’s true with all animals, not just humans. But when a mother is suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, children are in serious danger when they are around their own mother.’
My face felt hot. I wanted to scream out loud. A mother hurting her own child? A mother causing harm to her very own offspring. What sort of a world was this?
‘We’re lucky that Natasha and Rucha are still alive. There have been instances in Munchausen syndrome by proxy where the children die as a result of the abuse,’ Dr. Pande said.
My stream of consciousness was broken. Something that Jay said came to my mind. There were four other women from Pune who ordered medicines from that Dark Web chatroom. There were forty more women outside Pune. Were all these mothers harming their own kids?
I scrambled to reach my phone to call Rathod. This needed to stop right now.
Just then, my phone began buzzing in my hand. It was Jay. I answered the call right away.
He said, ‘I’ve found the location of the massive building in the blueprint. It’s huge. Like a mammoth warehouse.’
Chapter Fifty-One
There was a loud buzzing in my head. I could not hear what Jay was saying. I wanted to go away somewhere. Anywhere away from this crazy moment. Every time I thought about Natasha, a piercing pain ripped through my head.
‘Wait for a second,’ I said. ‘Hold the line. We need to tell you something.’
Dr. Pande asked Radha and Rahul to join us. I put Jay on hold and added Rathod to the call. I purposely did not call Atharva. How could I tell him his sister was harming her own daughter? Tears streamed down my face when I saw Radha and Rahul. Dr. Pande told the two of them, Rathod and Jay about Munchausen syndrome by proxy and how he thought Malini and Sumeira were harming their own daughters. Radha held Rahul and me tightly throughout.
‘We don’t know for sure,’ Radha said after Dr. Pande finished talking.
‘No, it’s true,’ Jay said. ‘I found some proof. I decrypted the video I was telling you about. I have sent it to you. Fair warning. It gets graphic.’
‘Is it about the mothers?’
‘Yes, but it gets more and more twisted the further you watch it. Don’t watch it around that girl you have with you’
Silence.
I knew I had to get back to my senses. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. I inhaled deeply. I opened my eyes. I needed to push myself one last time.
I said, ‘You said you found the address of the warehouse in the blueprint, right?’
‘That’s right. It was hidden in the pixels of the blueprint itself,’ Jay said.
‘Where is it?’
‘Outside Pune. Near Lonavala. I think it would take about an hour to get there.’
I could hear my hammering heart. ‘Do you know what it is?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘Send me the address,’ I said, wondering how so much money was involved in all of this.
‘I just sent it,’ he said.
Just as I was about to hang up, Jay said, ‘One more thing.’
‘Yes, go ahead.’
‘Take care, Siya. The video is brutal. But it is important you watch it. You’ll get a lot of answers after watching it,’ he said. ‘Don’t hesitate to call me afterwards. I have sent the video to both you and Rathod’
Jay disconnected the call. Rathod was still on the line. My phone buzzed once again on the bed. I checked what it was. I had two emails from Jay. The first had the address of the warehouse. The second had the video. I was afraid to open it.
‘Let’s watch it,’ I said.
Radha and Rahul clamoured around me. Dr. Pande looked over my shoulder. I opened my laptop on the bed and kept the phone next to it.
‘I’m playing it here as well,’ Rathod said.
Rahul leaned forward and clicked once to start the video.
A blank screen gave way to a bright source of light. It was replaced by three lines of text that said: We are proud of you. We love you no matter what people say. There’s a place for everyone in this world. That’s why we are here for you.
The screen faded once again. A man wearing an expensive looking black two-piece suit emerged. He was about forty and lean. His hair was thinning and he had combed it across to make it appear thicker.
He said, ‘Welcome once again! This is episode number thirty in this very special series. Today, like in every episode, the method recommended by the highest bidder will be used by a mother to torture her own child right here in front of us. The winner of today’s episode bid four crore rupees. That’s a new record. We keep getting bigger and better.’
They were auctioning off the method by which they harmed their children. It took me a second to register it. My breath thickened.
The man in the suit paused for a beat and narrowed his eyes while continuing to look at the camera. His face broke into a wide smile.
He continued, ‘Let me tell you that it’s a very unique way. We’ve never seen or heard about anything like it before. The best part about it is the process itself. It comes with a bonus too. It puts your child to sleep. There’s only one disadvantage. It can only be used on babies above one and under two years of age. I won’t spoil it for you. Let’s start watching without further ado.’
I cringed. Radha’s hand grabbed mine tightly.
The man’s image gave way to a different setting altogether. A mother entered the frame with her baby. She was holding him in her arms, rocking him from side to side.
A chilling realization hit me. This video had been shot on a smartphone. Probably the woman’s phone.
The woman smiled at the camera. She rocked the baby in her arms. The baby would have been about a year old. The woman exited the frame only to be back ten seconds later. This time she was carrying a bottle of toilet cleaner in one hand. She put her baby on the floor. She held the toilet cleaner and poured it over the baby’s pacifier. She made sure it was drenched with the toilet cleaner.
She placed the bottle of toilet cleaner on the ground. She held the pacifier in one hand and picked up the baby. He was sleeping soundly. She began rocking him again. Left and right, left and right. Suddenly, she stopped. She shook the baby hard until he started crying. She then put the pacifier in his mouth. He began sucking on it. Within a few seconds, he became quiet. The mother looked at the camera and smiled.
A chill ran up all over my body. I had never seen anything darker or colder.
The man who had given the introduction returned. He said, ‘Hello once again, friends! I hope you enjoyed watching that. It was arguably the best way to put your baby to sleep. Also, a word of advice. Make sure you dip the pacifier in the toilet cleaner, or any similar liquid of your choice, every five minutes. The toilet cleaner could cause damage to your baby’s esophagus if you keep doing this for a week. However, we don’t know what will happen if you do this for a month. We would love to hear from you if you have any idea about it. You know where to post your replies. I’ll see you again next week!
The screen went dark.
No one dared to move for the next minute.
‘What was that?’ Radha said finally, echoing our thoughts.
‘Someone paid four crores to see that kid getting tortured,’ I said.
‘And there’ll be a subscription fee to watch it over and over again as well,’ Rathod said.
All of us looked at each other. The energy in the room had been sucked out. My mind was flooded with questions and thoughts. One troubled me the most: how many more children were out there that were being harmed this way?
Breaking the silence, I said, ‘We now have the address of the warehouse. We need to go there.’
‘I’ll arrange for a SWAT team.’ Rathod said.
‘Wait,’ I said. ‘There was a reason Mule or Manohar did not go to the police even after they knew where this place was. There has to be a reason for that
.’
‘I don’t know, Siya. But with an entire SWAT team, I don’t care how powerful these people are. We’ll take them down.’
‘What if assembling the SWAT team alerts them? They might burn down the operation,’ I said.
Energy suddenly started coursing through me. All the emotions I was feeling earlier had made way for unbridled anger. Who could be so powerful, I wondered. Natasha’s words came back to me. The man with the golden tooth.
Just then, I remembered something that maa had said to me. She had joked about it a few days back when she was looking at her iPad. How had I not made the connection before? Someone powerful. Manohar had kept saying it. The person running this was also pulling all the strings of the cops. I should have realized it then myself! His face flashed in my mind. I had seen it so many times on various billboards across Pune, especially during the recently concluded General Elections.
‘Rathod,’ I said. ‘We need to go there by ourselves. I know who we’re dealing with. I know who’s at the helm of this operation. We can’t take the risk of going there with a SWAT team.’
‘Who is it?’ Rathod said.
‘The Chief Minister of Maharashtra—Manoj Sarvate. He has a golden tooth cap. I don’t know where Natasha saw him. But right now, I remembered that maa had told me how she found it funny that news nowadays covered even the dental appointment of Maharashtra’s Chief Minister. I remember now that he had gone for a root canal. Maa had told me about it as well. In many cases, dentists put a crown on the treated tooth for precaution.’
‘If you’re right, we have to be extremely careful’, Rathod said. ‘I still feel I can have people from my own patrol team. I trust them completely.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘They have put their own lives in danger to save mine many, many times,’ Rathod said. ‘Also, I’ve been studying the blueprint ever since we found it at Mule’s house. I knew we would bust this place at some point. Even though I didn’t know what it was, I could figure out some details that will be useful when we go there now. Keeping that in mind, I’ve already discussed tactical points with them.’
