The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray - Old saying
When things don't go according to plan
Spin comes into play. - New saying
Amrita, Shyam and Mukesh finalised their plan of action and who should do what.
Amrita volunteered to go to Sarang and get the receiver and follow Kamal.
"Please trust me with this job. I assure you, I will be doubly cautious, because this is not my life at danger, but Ajay's. I will not mess this up and cause any harm to him in the process. I promise." She assured them both and left on her motorbike that Vijay left with them earlier.
She made sure her face is covered by a dark helmet and her hair is all tucked in. She wore a heavily padded leather jacket and pants and set off.
Sarang was waiting for her a few blocks away from the station, and handed over the receiver to her. He informed her that if he notices Kamal leaving the station, he would text her. Amrita thanked him, and positioned herself behind an old road roller left by the repair workers at a nearby street.
It pained her so much to be so near to Ajay, and still not able to see him. But she knew that doing this job without a hitch is of paramount importance. She and Ajay had a lifetime to spend together... After an hour of waiting, she got a text from Sarang saying that Kamal was going out.
It was quite dark by now, and Amrita's black bike was but a shadow in the fast moving traffic.
She kept a distance of at least 5 vehicles behind Kamal's Van and followed him. The reception of the receiver was pretty good even in the traffic. She secured it next to her ear with in the helmet. But Kamal wasn't talking, probably because he was driving the Van himself. The car reached a dingy part of the city, which looked run down and disreputable. Amrita stopped her bike quite a distance away, and ensured she was well hidden, behind a side wall of a dilapidated building.
Shortly afterwards, a man with long hair and sunken face approached S P Kamal.
He saluted to S P Kamal and caught the cash bundle Kamal threw at him.
"So you understood what I require right? It should look like an explosion that would occur when a car with failed breaks hits the van, bursting the fuel tank, and catching fire. But you should actually place a tiny bomb inside the car, which should do the job. The main thing is body should be blown to pieces and there should not be any trace of the body." He reiterated in a cold voice.
Shivers ran down Amrita's spine, as she heard of the plot hatched by Kamal to kill her dearest Ajay. She closed her eyes and blocked off her emotions, and riveted back her attention to listen to the rest of the conversation.
"That bundle is just the advance. The rest will be given to you once you have finished the job successfully. As I said earlier, money is not a concern here, but the job should be flaw less. Understand?" Kamal demanded.
"Don't worry Saab. This is normal job for us. It will be done and you won't have any complaint whatsoever." The man replied and saluted Kamal once again, as Kamal started and drove off in his Van.
Amrita waited for a few minutes. She slowly followed his car keeping a significant gap.
Kamal was driving back to his home. Once he parked his car in the driveway and went inside, Amrita called Shyam and repeated what she just heard.
Shyam swore loudly as he heard the gruesome details. He asked Amrita to continue her watch at Kamal's house.
As Amrita waited, watching over Kamal's house, she couldn't help but recall the heinous plan details she heard in Kamal's menacing voice; she shuddered once again. That man was evil incarnated. And the most disgusting thing was that he was a police officer, who had sworn to protect the public against all crimes.
She waited for what seemed like a long time, but there was no further call from Shyam or Mukesh. She got terribly worried. She tried Shyam's number first and then Mukesh. Neither of them picked up her call. Something has gone terribly wrong, she thought. Even in that leather suit, her whole body turned cold and started shivering now... as she was afraid that they have failed to execute Ajay's plan.
***
Next day morning 9AM:
Gandhi Road Police Station:
Ajay was standing patiently in his cell waiting for the formalities to begin.
S I Sarang arrived and handcuffed him, and double checked that the handcuffs were intact.
Just then S P Kamal along with Constable Satish and Constable Veeran walked in.
"Good morning Sir" S I Sarang wished his senior, but Kamal got a little flustered to see Sarang there.
He recovered himself quickly though. He had to be calm and cool, and make sure everything goes through as per plan today, Kamal thought to himself.
"Sir here is the paperwork regarding the case." Sarang handed over the file to SP Kamal.
"What?? Oh yes! The paperwork yes, I need that thank you." Kamal replied nervously.
What's wrong with me? Kamal thought, as he took the file from Sarang.
"Sir, if you don't mind, I too would like to join you. Extra security is always good while transportation." Sarang said hopefully.
"ABSOLUTELY NO NEED." Kamal didn't realise how loud his voice was, till he saw the shocked reaction in everyone's face.
He controlled himself, and replied in a moderate tone again.
"Sarang, thanks for the offer, but Satish and Veeran are quite experienced in prisoner transportation. So I don't think we would need any extra help."
Turning to them, Kamal said in a more authoritative way
"What are you guys waiting for? Take Ajay to the Van and make sure he is handcuffed; Let's go."
All of them hurried Ajay along, and took him to the Van. S I Sarang followed them and once Ajay was seated, checked to ensure Ajay's handcuffs again and moved aside. S P Kamal locked the Van and came back to his jeep. Constable Veeran was driving the jeep while Constable Satish sat at the backseat. The Prisoner van, followed by S P Kamal's jeep moved out of the station premises.
Being the morning peak hour, the traffic was as usual quite bad on the way. The Police Van and Jeep navigated their way through traffic on the main highway slowly.
Being the midweek, a lot of food trucks and semi-trailers were on the highway that day, their drivers notoriously famous for their rash driving. Two such trucks, which were trying to overtake each other, started creating mayhem on the road. SP Kamal's jeep was going ahead with the Police Van following it, and at one time the Police Van was cornered on both sides by these two trucks, veering into the Van's path. The Police Van driver was scared and angry at the same time, for these drivers' stupid behaviour.
Adding to the trouble, another pickup truck started tailing the police van. At one point the driver couldn't see either side of the road through the rear view mirrors, as he was surrounded by this unruly truckies.
The Van driver almost thought of calling SP Kamal to alert him, but thankfully at this time they quit the highway and took the side road, to go through Sarojini Nagar as originally planned. But to the driver's agony, the trucks followed the van through this too. There was a railway crossing where all the vehicles had to halt for a few minutes. After the crossing, the Van moved to the inner roads of Sarojini Nagar, and trucks proceeded on the main road towards the central market.
They reached the junction road in no time, and Kamal ordered the Van to stop on the side, near a tree. Kamal, both constables and the driver got down and crossed the road to reach the dhaba, and sat down to have some tea and snacks.
The young driver found it strange that they had to get down for a tea break, while transporting a prisoner; but kept quiet as he was afraid of his seniors.
Just then, a car travelling at almost 100kmph was seen speeding along the road. The driver seemed to have lost control of the car, and as it zigzagged through the bumps, it finally crashed at that top speed into the Police Van and there was a huge explosion!!
All this happened in such a short time, that no one even had any sense on how to react. Kamal, Constables and the driver rushed towards the van, but there was another fresh explosion, which made it too dangerous to approach the van.
As the general public and the police crew watched with open mouth, both the van and the car were engulfed in huge flames and smoke. And then, the chaos started . Debris from the explosion flew everywhere around, and people rushed for cover.
Kamal rushed to his jeep, and drove it away to safety. Using the police radio, he then immediately called for fire service, police back up as well as the forensic team. All the traffic stopped on either side of the junction road.
The new driver of the Police Van was the most shaken. He kept thanking both constables and SP Kamal repeatedly, for inviting him over to the Dhaba. Otherwise, he would have turned to ashes too.
It took a while for the fire brigade service to arrive and water down the whole flames.
All the teams were waiting till they had the clearance from the fire service, that it was safe to walk near the vehicles and inspect the damage. All that could be seen was the charred remains of both the car and van. Hardly anything remained of the bodies, and they were barely recognisable. All that remained was a black charred mass.
The Forensic team, who were waiting patiently till then, moved quickly and covered whatever was left of both the bodies, and arranged them to be taken away to their Lab. They collected further samples of debris from the explosion, and took photos of the accident site.
Together, the Police and the Emergency Services cordoned off the accident area, and the traffic police started diverting all the traffic to alternate routes.
S P Kamal had informed both his senior officers as well as his team by then, that the Van carrying Ajay had met with a terrible accident, resulting in two fatalities including that of the car driver, who had crashed his car in to the police van.
It was almost 2PM now.
It wasn't clear how the news spread, but few TV news channels also arrived by then and started filming the scene of the accident.
Couple of reporters and general public gathered around the S P Kamal and constables, to enquire about what happened. Initially the police and the emergency team fended off the reporters to stay away. But more and more TV crew started to arrive, and it was unknown as to who leaked this information to them, that it was Ajay who was being transported in the van. But the unconfirmed rumour was enough to catch on like wildfire. Suddenly all the TV crew alerted to this sensational development, and began to broadcast live feed from the accident scene.
#BREAKING NEWS#
As you can see from the explosion behind me, a police van had been in an accident, and is now totally burnt down, due to a suspected fuel leak explosion. The most tragic thing was that it was transporting Ajay Singh Rathore, ex –ACP and prime accused in the murder of Pratap Chaudhary, brother of State Minister Vikram Chaudhary,
It should be noted that both bodies of Mr Ajay and the driver of the Car who hit the van, have burnt to almost unrecognisable shape. In fact only few remaining charred pieces of human parts were apparently recovered by the forensics. The police crew which was accompanying Mr Ajay were just taking a tea break when this happened, and hence remain unharmed.
S P Kamal got a call from DIG.
"What the hell is going on Kamal?" DIG was furious beyond limit.
Kamal felt his perspiration build up, as he listened to his Boss.
"Sir, there was an unfortunate accident." He went on to explain everything that happened.
"How could you let something like this happen? How can I show my face to his family now?" DIG sounded frustrated.
"And who leaked all this information to the press?" He demanded every more angrily.
"Sir, please trust me I haven't issued any statement to the press." Kamal pleaded.
"Then it's time you do it right now. Otherwise they will run their own spin on things and bury the real facts. Finish that conference and come and meet me at the office, we are going to have a team meeting." He hung up before Kamal could respond.
Kamal cursed at his fate. On one side, he was being hounded by his superiors and on the other by Vikram Chaudhary. He hurriedly called for a press conference with the gathered TV crew at the site, and gave a brief statement.
"We were taking the accused Mr Ajay Singh Rathore (suspended ACP) to the court in relation to the murder of Sri Pratap Chaudhary. While the police were taking a tea break here, an uncontrolled car being driven at top speed collided with the police van, which caused a fuel leakage and the explosion. A formal statement about the cause of death and explosion will be later released to press, after our forensic team completes their investigation."
"I am very sorry for the death of Ajay in these circumstances, because I wanted him to stand trial and face justice by our esteemed court system, for murdering Mr Pratap Chaudhary. I offer my condolences to the Chaudhary family, especially Sri Vikram Chaudhary, and pray to god that Mr Pratap's soul may rest in peace." He concluded.
One of the reporters then asked Kamal
"What will now happen to the court case that Ajay has filed against the Nalanda Hospital?"
"There will be full cooperation from the police department, for the court case regarding Dr Vidya's death. It would be best if you contact their lawyer for the rest of the case details." Kamal replied dismissively.
"We are also hearing rumours that it's not just Nalanda Hospital, but some other hospitals are also being accused in the court case. Is that true?"
"I don't have time to answer to rumours. That's all for now" Kamal left the site in a hurry to meet the DIG.
The TV Reporters returned back to the live feed and continued their coverage.
"Mr Ajay Singh Rathore's death, from all the evidence we can see so far, seems to be a tragic accident. Although the police are not exactly confirming how the accident happened, and why they took a detour here.
So what will now happen to the Nalanda Hospital case? Will it ever proceed in court or be forgotten?
Also it is being rumoured that Dr Tripathi, the Dean of Nalanda Hospital had gone on a foreign trip. Is this another case of Police Negligence? To know all this, please watch our exclusive report at 9PM."
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Hi Everyone,
As I said in the beginning things always don't work out the way we plan.
Look at S P Kamal -- his life is neither here nor there now.
So What is going to happen next? Find out in the next chapters.
Please show your love for the story by voting and commenting on what
you liked and what you didn't.
Looking forward to all your comments.
All pics credit to original unloaders. I just downloaded from Google.
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