The Perfect Crime — IV

Rock music was blaring through the speakers when the doorbell rang. A man in his white shorts and black t-shirt opened the door to find police standing outside. “Sumit Sadh stays here? The inspector asks as and as the guy nodded his head, he informed him to open the door.

They walked towards the room from where the music was coming to find him smoking in the balcony with a glass of vodka kept on the side table and sitting on wooded chair watching the outside view.

The silence of music caught his attention and as he turned over he found them standing next to him. “You are under arrest; you will have to come with us. Constable, handcuff him” the inspector ordered “You cannot do this. Let me know what I have done wrong” he screamed and reasoned with them but they took him along.

Sumit was sitting on the chair in front of Sushil’s desk waiting for his arrival as a constable nearby kept watched over him. Moments after, Sushil walked inside and said “Hello, Mr. Sumit, how are you?” as he sat on his chair.

Sumit looked furious and said “Why am I being arrested. Can you let me know? I have already informed you that I have not done anything”. Sushil looked at him and said “Are you being honest with me. You really don’t know why you are here. Do you really want me to tell you why you are here? 

Their eyes glared into each other as Sumit looked at Sushil and said “Yes I want to know”.

“Okay, so you want to have it this way then so be it” said Sushil as he got up. “You might remember, we had called you for questioning for the murder of Chaitra Raghavan, don’t you?” Sushil looked at him as he leaned over the desk and Sumit nodded his head.

“We got you under arrest for killing Chaitra Raghavan”. “What proof do you have that I have killed her?” asked Sumit. “I knew you were going to ask that, so evidence number one you knew Chaitra and we have your friend’s statement to corroborate it.

“That does not prove that I killed her”. “I know. I am going to present evidence number two. We have text messages to prove that you were in touch with her and that you had spoken to her on the day she was murdered”. He looked at him and asked him “So you still believe that you are innocent or I should provide more evidence to you”

Sumit kept quiet as he looked other way moving his gaze from Sushil. “You still think that we do not have enough proof to nail you” he said as he walked away from him. “We know that you were blackmailing her” He turned his chair around looked him into his eyes and asked “Do you still say that you did not killed her?” he paused and said, “Come on answer me. Answer me, dam it” as he raised his voice.

Silence crept in as tension got built up in the room with Sumit looking down as Sushil waited for a response.

“Yes I killed her”. Sumit said slowly as he moved his head up and looked towards Sushil. “She was going to tell Milind everything and I did not want that to happen. I killed her by putting poison in her tea”.

“You did not want the money to stop coming through her. Am I right?” Sushil thundered as Sumit nodded his head and said yes.

“Take him to the cell”. He said to the constable standing in the room. As Sumit was taken away, Constable Shankar announced the arrival of Milind. 

“Bring him in”. Sushil apprised him of the events that unfolded and that led them to Sumit Sadh, killer of Chaitra. “The vital clue was provided by the landlord who confirmed to see her and overheard about talking about pictures” “Photos? Which photos? Asked a puzzled Milind.

Sushil face got grim as he looked over at Milind and said “He had shot obscene photos of her during their college days and was blackmailing her”. Taken aback, he moved back and said “She never told me of any such thing about blackmailing. Was she in a relationship with her and he made use of her? He asked.

“We still have pieces of evidence to tie up together and at this moment we cannot be certain if she was aware or unconscious when the photos were taken. We have arrested him and will make sure that he does not see the sunlight for a very long time”.

As Milind thanked him and left, Constable Shankar asked Sushil “Sir, how did you know which Sumit Sadh was the killer as they both knew her”. “That was not very hard once it came down to two individuals. We just needed to find out their whereabouts when Chaitra was murdered and everything fitted. The phone details also helped. That nailed our guy in glasses. 

“Remember one thing, there is nothing like a perfect crime” Sushil said as he gave a spin to the paper weight and it keep on spinning.