The COMPLETE Siya Rajput Crime Thrillers (Books 1 to 4)

by UD Yasha

  I tried to picture myself in a situation where Radha or Rahul did not answer my calls. I would not get worried enough to lodge a police complaint even if they didn’t respond to me for twelve hours. At least under usual circumstances. But now, when I knew that there was danger, and people associated with this investigation were being killed, I would be worried even if they didn’t answer my calls for an hour.

  Kabir had got a lot of death threats throughout his career. Had Kabir taken one of them seriously and had shared his concern with his wife?

  Did Sheena know that something bad was about to go down? Was that also why she had gone to a random hotel two days later to hide?

  If that was the reason, she must have felt threatened. Maybe Kabir had told her something, or vice versa. Husbands and wives shared almost everything with each other.

  At the same time, another thought entered my mind. Why were so many people associated with the investigation being killed? Surely, something had to be hidden. Maybe all these people knew something was up. Or they had been dragged into whatever was being hidden. That a husband and wife were killed one right after the other further flamed my suspicion. I became more confident in my theory that people were being killed to keep something hidden.

  If that was the case, and an eighteen-year-old murder was the start, I began to wonder what triggered the scars of the Ahuja murders to be reopened now? Given the evidence we had, the first spate of murders this time around was when Jane Doe killed the Jathars and John Doe.

  If Niyati Jathar had performed the plastic surgeries on Jane Doe, she had been a living and breathing witness to who Jane Doe was earlier. Did that push Jane Doe over the edge to kill the Jathars? Maybe John Doe was collateral damage, I thought for a beat before scratching it out. John Doe seemed too odd to be present with the Jathars for no specific reason.

  After killing them, Jane Doe had called me. If what I remembered from before my blackout was correct, she herself had told me that. Had she called me to kill me or was it to save me? I was leaning towards her wanting to kill me because I was still alive and someone else had killed her even before she could get to me. But she also had a chance to finish me when she was giving me directions. Maybe Jane Doe didn’t want to kill me. I tapped the desk in the garage out of frustration. All of it seemed bizarre when I thought back to it. I let the matter rest. I hoped I would remember what had happened. If that wasn’t happening anytime soon, then I needed to divert my attention to matters where I could make some headway.

  I used the ‘Find’ function on the computer and searched for dad’s name in the case files. He was not a part of the investigating team. He wasn’t even mentioned once in the entire investigation. I thought, if the Ahuja investigation was central to all that had been happening, then how had dad gotten himself involved in it when he wasn’t even on the case? Once again, I was starting to go down a dead end.

  I shifted my focus back to the objective facts. Kabir Ahuja’s murder.

  Kabir’s body had been discovered the same night that Sheena had made the complaint. He was found dead in his farmhouse. It seemed like there was a struggle the way the things in the study room had been disturbed.

  I saw the pictures.

  The study room had two entrances. One through the house and the other into the backyard of the farmhouse. It was huge and had a beautiful light brown wooden desk at one end and a large book rack at the other. The rack was filled with all kinds of books. There was also a small dressing table with a mirror next to the rack. It was awkwardly placed but the close-up photos revealed it was well stacked. The desk had one of those old-fashioned personal computers with a large CPU and monitor. Kabir’s body was on the floor next to the desk.

  The farmhouse door was unlocked and open when the cops reached the place. There was no security guard at the front and back gates. Large open yards surrounded it in every direction. The farmhouse, itself, was away from Pune city in an area called Loni. Even in 2020, Loni was far away from the city, and its population was sparser compared to the city. Back in 2002, the nearest place of human habitation from the farmhouse was at least ten minutes away, and that too if you “drove at a crazy speed” according to the cop who had typed out the report.

  In short, the farmhouse was the perfect place to commit a murder and get away with it.

  How then had Mukund Dhar got caught?

  I began going through the case against Mukund Dhar.

  The most damning piece of evidence against Dhar was a partial fingerprint that he had left behind at the crime scene. It was found on the floor next to Kabir’s body. The police had actually found a palm print, not a fingerprint, which was as unique and damning. The police had a theory that Dhar was wearing gloves. But in his struggle with Kabir, his glove might have slipped and that’s how the edge of Dhar’s palm got exposed and touched the floor. I knew there was no way to know what had happened.

  In his defense, Dhar had said that he was innocent and there was no way his prints could have ended up at the crime scene because he was nowhere near it. He was at his house, forty kilometres away, in Bavdhan, the other end of Pune City. No one could confirm Dhar’s statement as he lived alone. I didn’t completely agree with the prosecutor’s argument of how Dhar’s palm print had been found on the crime scene.

  The second piece of evidence was the bloody clothes found at Dhar’s house. The clothes were his. Dhar admitted that, but he didn’t know how Kabir’s blood had got on it. The clothes were discovered behind Dhar’s cupboard.

  At this point, I became suspicious for the first time. Very few murderers, and especially contract killers, would keep their clothes soaked in their victim’s blood in their own house. They would throw them some place where they would not be found, or simply burn them where no one would see them burning something shady.

  I shelved the suspicion for the time being.

  The cops investigating the murder had also found a suitcase full of cash at Dhar’s house. A total of twenty lakh rupees, a big amount even in 2020. The cops believed it to be the money Dhar got for the hit. That was my second problem with the case.

  The money was, at best, circumstantial evidence. Dhar was also a suspected hitman in other cases, mainly due to his connection with some local dons. The money could have very well come from any of the other hits, some other illegal activity or, quite simply, a legitimate job. There was no tracer or marker in the money that could give away its origin.

  That’s why Mukund Dhar was arrested within a week of killing Kabir. The police had looked at all the stuff that Kabir had written about in the past year and had ruled out the people he had criticized. They had also looked at the articles that were in progress but had not found anything scathing enough to warrant a murder in them.

  I wondered if Kabir’s career had a role to play in his murder. He had angered lots of people. I started going through Kabir’s email and phone records to see if I could get something from it. The police had already analysed them but had not found anything.

  I also started looking at the other cases where Dhar was the suspected hitman. There were a total of four such cases. Each time, a different gun was used. Once, the person was stabbed, not shot. If all the suspicions were true, Kabir was Dhar’s fifth known murder victim.

  I didn’t believe Dhar was guilty in the rest of the cases, simply because the court had not found him guilty. But it baffled me how Dhar was careless enough to leave bloody clothes at his house when he knew he had been a murder suspect before. An ordinary killer would not commit a rookie mistake like that, let alone someone like Dhar who had been a suspect in four murders.

  The other four cases were similar to Kabir’s murder in two ways. Firstly, Dhar didn’t have an alibi for any of them. And secondly, Dhar denied being involved in the crime. The evidence presented in those cases was again circumstantial. In each, witnesses had placed Dhar at the crime scene around the time of the murder, or they had seen Dhar speak to the victim a few days or hours before the murder.


  On each occasion, the judge had ruled that the evidence to implicate Dhar wasn’t enough. For the court to punish any guilty man or woman, the Judge had to be sure beyond a reasonable doubt.

  The most interesting part about looking up Dhar’s suspected criminal history was realizing that the same cops investigated his cases each time. Which got me wondering if the cops were trying to get Dhar behind bars. As a criminal defense lawyer, I know there are times when the police just know that someone is guilty. The suspect has passed several comments or bragged about something. It can’t be used in the court of law, but as policemen you can get as close to being convinced about it as possible.

  Had something similar happened four times before, that the police planted the evidence? It was a big accusation to make, but I had to consider it. I was also surprised that the judge found no reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case against Dhar. Being a lawyer with less than ten years of experience, I could confidently say that I was not convinced, especially given Dhar’s past.

  I decided to speak to the judge and the medical examiner to get more insight into what led them to arrest Dhar.

  With that thought in mind, I picked up my phone. It had been an hour and a half since Rathod had left for the crime scene. I reckoned he would have gotten free by now. I called him.

  ‘My guys just finished going through the CCTV footage of the residential complex where the Jathars lived,’ Rathod said as soon as he answered the call. ‘You wouldn’t believe what we found.’

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  I put the phone on speaker and made sure the door of my room was locked.

  ‘Go on,’ I said.

  I could sense the excitement in Rathod’s voice. He said, ‘Only the camera at the main gate of the complex was working well. We started off by checking all cars that exited the complex between ten and three in the morning. Out of all, three piqued our suspicion as their drivers did not have an alibi for the murders. One more interested us because we could not locate or contact its driver. The CCTV is not at the best angle to see how the driver looked while exiting either,’ Rathod said and inhaled sharply. ‘Now it’s getting interesting. We also checked when Niyati Jathar’s car entered the complex the previous evening to know when John Doe could have gotten into their house. She had driven in at about six in the evening. Niyati was driving and Malhar was on the seat next to her. The fourth car, whose driver we could not locate, went in at the same time as Niyati Jathar’s car. In fact, Niyati signed her in by asking the security guards to not bother with the fourth car’s entry. And guess what?’

  ‘The fourth car had Jane Doe in it,’ Rathod and I said in unison.

  ‘Exactly,’ Rathod said. ‘That means that Jane Doe knew the Jathars and even possibly John Doe. They spent about four to six hours with each other in the Jathar house. Then somehow, Jane Doe killed them. What does this tell you?’

  I thought that Jane Doe went in for the kill, did her job and then got out of there. Then possibly went to Stan Mills to kill me,’ I said.

  ‘But now we don’t know what her plan was. She could have still gone to the Jathars with an intention to kill them. Now, there’s also a chance that the conversation they were having went sour and Jane Doe decided to kill them. I don’t know why else she would have waited so long before murdering them.’

  ‘What time did her car exit the complex?’ I said.

  ‘Two fifty AM.’

  ‘She called me half an hour later.’

  ‘That gives her enough time to go to Stan Mills, hide and wait for you. There’s a new temporary forensic staff here, in place of all the people we’re missing since yesterday,’ Rathod said. ‘In corroboration with the video footage from the gate, one of them analysed the tire tracks Jane Doe’s car would have made. He then cross-referenced it with the samples and pictures that Rahul had taken. Without a mold of the tracks from Stan Mills, it’s not possible to say with one hundred percent certainty, but the new technician here says that the two are a ninety percent match. It’s as high as you can go with just a photograph.’

  ‘The gunshot residue itself nailed Jane Doe as the shooter,’ I said. ‘What’s the update on our meeting with Motilal Ahuja and my permission to meet Mukund Dhar in prison?’

  ‘I spoke to Ahuja’s secretary. She said she’ll get back soon after speaking to her boss directly. Your pass is in process and should be here any minute,’ Rathod said. ‘I’ll call you once we get it.’

  After Rathod told me about Jane Doe spending time at the Jathar house, I began to realize how important it was to know her identity. That she spent time with the Jathars told me they trusted her. That’s why we had not seen any sign of a break in. Niyati and Malhar had invited the killer into their house.

  I called Radha and Rahul to my room and brought them up to date with the proceedings. While telling them everything, a new idea struck me.

  I thought out loud. ‘All the key people associated with the case are being killed. Perhaps because they know something. I was called to Stan Mills by Jane Doe, mostly to be killed. Why did she then tell me that she had called me when she was dying? It makes no sense. And secondly, if you think about it, there have been lots of opportunities to kill me since yesterday.’

  ‘Don’t say that,’ Radha said.

  ‘But it’s true. I went to Stan Mills. Granted I was with Rahul and Rathod’s SWAT team guy, but it doesn’t take much for a professional hitman to hide and kill me, or all three of us. Similarly, I was alone last evening when I drove Rathod—’

  ‘That was a bad idea,’ Radha said. ‘You’re not going alone anywhere.’

  Before I could say anything, Radha leaned forward and kept her head on my lap and started crying. I stroked her head. I realized I had been too honest about the idea of me dying. Just like I couldn’t bear Radha getting hurt, neither could she.

  ‘Hey, I’m still here, right?’ I said, lifting her head up.

  Radha wiped her tears. ‘I know. But don’t talk like that. And be careful. Don’t go anywhere alone. Have Rathod next to you,’ she said. ‘Always remember the last part. I’ve seen the way he goes out of his way to protect you.’

  I knew that feeling myself. I felt safer with him around me. Just thinking about it made me calmer. ‘Alright,’ I said and gave Radha a kiss on her forehead.

  ‘I’m sorry to be a buzzkill,’ Rahul said. ‘But what Siya said about us not being targeted yet has to mean something.’

  ‘Why are we being spared? Are we immune?’ I said.

  ‘If we are, then what has given us that immunity?’ Radha said.

  ‘Another reason could be that we’re immune for the time being. We may not be a direct threat with how much we know for now,’ Rahul said.

  ‘I have also been thinking that we’re focusing on trying to know who Jane Doe was. But John Doe is equally important,’ I said. ‘He seems random right now. But there has to be a reason why he was hidden and brought to their house by Niyati and Malhar. They didn’t want to take a chance and raise any suspicion by having their building’s security see him. He was clearly important.’

  ‘Let’s try and figure out who he was then,’ Rahul said.

  As I was about to call Rathod, my phone buzzed. It was a message from Rathod. It had the permission that I needed to see Mukund Dhar in prison.

  I punched the air in excitement.

  Just then, my phone started ringing. It was Rathod again.

  He said, ‘Just got through to Motilal Ahuja. He is eager to meet us.’

  ‘Am I allowed to meet him?’ I said.

  ‘Yes, I told him I’ll be accompanied by a private detective who’s working with us.’

  ‘Does ACP Shukla know?’

  ‘I haven’t told him.’

  Silence.

  Rathod said, ‘Motilal Ahuja is in Delhi right now, but he said he will clear his schedule and meet us in Mumbai in five hours if that’s okay with us. I told him we’ll start for his house right away.’

  That meant I wouldn
’t be able to meet Dhar right away. I checked the time. It was almost two. We would take at least four hours to reach Mumbai, another four to come back. Plus, some more time to speak to Ahuja. I would have to push meeting Dhar to the next day. ‘If I don’t meet Dhar right now, I wouldn’t be able to meet him before tomorrow. I was thinking I could go to Yerwada Jail and talk to him right now.’

  Rathod waited before answering, probably working out the dynamics in his head. ‘Sure, but make it quick and leave right now. Otherwise, we’ll be cutting it too close. Call me before leaving Yerwada,’ he said and hung up.

  I told Radha and Rahul about my plan. Radha was concerned about me going to Yerwada alone, but there was no other choice. Rathod was busy at work and the two of them would not be allowed inside the Jail.

  I dug through my purse and gave Rahul the pendrive that Rathod had given me. It had high definition pictures of the triple murders, which included John Doe’s shots from the crime scene.

  I changed into a fresh dark green salwaar kameez, took my dupatta and the car keys, and walked out into the warm afternoon air, wondering what Dhar would have to tell me.

  Chapter Thirty

  Going back to Yerwada Jail brought back the memories of visiting Kishore Zakkal. I hated myself for it. Zakkal seemed to have me on some kind of a leash. Every time I wanted to get away from him, he pulled me in closer. The thought of being close to him made me want to puke. The feeling passed when my mind was taken over by what I wanted to know from Dhar.

  Matters would be much simpler if he just told me who had paid him. At that point, I was also wondering if Dhar had killed Kabir Ahuja at all. The evidence seemed too convenient. Maybe it was as easy as it seemed, but it had definitely made me suspicious.