~Chapter 1~
The sound of the doorbell made him look up from his daily paper. Folding it and placing at his side table, he walked to the door wondering who was it this early. As he opened the door he felt his lips curve on its own at the sight of the visitor.
"Aren't you going to let me in?"
"Arre... Bhabhi, you are always welcome... come come"
Manisha entered in and handed him a package.
"What is this, Bhabhi?"
"Its his birthday, today"
'Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you... Our Freddy na... He is just a grown-up kid'
As the memories flashed before his eyes, Abhijeet shut his eyes and swallowed the lump in his throat. Had it not been for his stupidity that day, maybe they would have been celebrating again today.
"Bhabhi... I am sorr.."
"Shut up, Its not your fault. I never blamed you then, and won't blame you now or ever..."
He stood there silently his eyes firmly on the ground. She reached out and held his face.
"How long are you going to blame yourself? He could never bear to see you unhappy... and neither can I..."
He looked up into her eyes and she looked away.
"And... how long are you going to keep sending those cheques? I told you I am earning enough to keep myself content and I don't really need them."
"I promised him, I'll take care of you Bhabhi... this is the least I can do..."
She shook her head.
"You are so stubborn... if you really want to do something for me... Then..."
She looked into his eyes searching for something.
"Yup, that sparkle is still missing... she has come back, hasn't she? haven't you talked to her yet?"
He looked away again.
"No, Bhabhi it isn't that simple"
"Why?"
"She left... do you think I mean anything to her now?"
"You are an idiot for not being able to see what's right in front of you. Can't you see she is hurting too? Weren't you the one who pushed her away then?"
"But she left..."
"Stubborn as always... both of you are..."
She clicked her tongue and walked to the kitchen.
"Let me whip up some breakfast for us, wake Shreya up..."
"You don't have..."
"Then bring her home, I'll stop this..."
"Bhabhi... You are impossible... Why are you connecting two unrelated topics?"
She grinned and he started walking towards his daughter's room but stopped when he heard her say
"I met her yesterday... and she is still not over you... I mean... she never was over you"
He said nothing but continued to walk towards his daughter's room.
****
He sat in his cabin flipping through pages of an old case when suddenly Daya barged in, breathless.
"Did you go meet Ravi a week ago?"
"Haan... I did... why what happened?"
"He's gone..."
"Gone?"
Daya looked at him frustrated.
"How long did you stay with him?"
Before Abhijeet could answer, he heard ACP sir bellowing out his name. He went out to see the entire team and his now retired boss DCP Chitrole.
"Chitrole saab?"
"Haan haan... Your annoying boss Chitrole is back..."
Abhijeet shook his head and looked directly at ACP.
"What is the matter, sir?"
"Abhijeet, your CI, Ravi... he is dead..."
"Dead? But I just saw him last week?"
Chitrole bumped in.
"Of course you did, didn't you? To shoot him dead after fighting with him..."
Abhijeet once again ignored Chitrole and looked again at his father like boss.
"Sir, its true I met him, true I was angry at him because he gave a wrong lead in the R2 drug cartel case we have been tracking for the past 3 months, true I threatened to shoot him if he dares to lie again.... but I left home after talking to him..."
Chitrole sneered.
"No... you 'forgot' one tiny bit of detail... after screaming at him, you pulled out your gun and shot him..."
"I did not..."
"Well I have the footage of you pointing the gun at him... Purvi, switch on the projector..."
Chitrole opened his mobile and cast the video he had on his device. The video had no sound but the visual of Abhijeet angrily saying something and pointing the gun at Ravi and then it stopped abruptly.
"Sir, I left home immediately after this... I did pull out my gun to threaten him not to lie to us again, you can check the rest of the footage..."
"I can... but they are conveniently deleted just like your memory..."
Daya pitched in.
"Sir, please... why do you always have to think the worst of Abhijeet?"
"Because he..."
ACP sir now said.
"Stop it... Sir, this doesn't prove that Abhijeet did anything more than what he is saying. You can't accuse him without proof..."
"Proof? Come to the forensic lab, I'll give you proof..."
Saying so, he marched to the forensic lab with the team following him.
****
The almost always quiet forensic lab seemed to be in a chaos. The eccentric doctor was screaming at the 2 new men in lab coats. Abhijeet looked hard and recognized one of them to be Vaibhav. ACP sir marched right towards his best friend.
"Salunkhe... Whats going on? Why is the lab so noisy?"
"Noisy... you think this is noisy... why are these idiots here? Why did you send them here?"
"They are here under my orders."
Salunkhe looked up and saw Chitrole standing in front of him.
"You... Aren't you retired?"
"Look who is asking... I am back... and these are my people who are here because your officer strayed against the law yet again..."
ACP sir butted in again
"Sir, please don't accuse Abhijeet without proofs..."
Vaibhav spoke up.
"We have proofs."
Salunkhe gave a muffled grunt that sounded eerily like a smothered curse. Pradyuman looked at him and gestured him to be quiet, he turned to look at Vaibhav.
"Tell me, what are the proofs that you have"
Vaibhav opened his files and read out
"Ravikiran, age 38, Male, CI of CID Inspector Abhijeet. Cause of Death: A single bullet wound on the chest. Time of Death: 9th May 2025, 21.00 to 21.15 hours. Bullet recovered postmortem. Bullet matches the calibre and make of CID Inspector Abhijeet. Fingerprints recovered on victim's hand: CID Inspector Abhijeet. Tyre marks near body matches tyre marks of CID Inspector Abhijeet's car.Eye witness: Ravikiran's wife saw InspectorAbhijeet arguing with him at around 20.45 hours when she left for work. Video records confirms the presence of the accused at precisely 20.53 hours. Phone records confirm the presence of the accused within a 3 mile radius of the victim"
"Well done, Vaibhav... that was a clear demonstration or excellence."
ACP sir stood silent, multiple thoughts running through his mind. He trusted Abhijeet with his life yet the evidence was damning. His brain told him that Abhijeet was rash when he got angry but his heart refused to believe that the man he considered as his son would kill someone.
"Toh, ACP here is your proof... Do you all believe now?"
"I don't..."
A soft voice interrupted the heavy silence. Abhijeet looked up
"Tarika...?"
"Haan haan enter enter.. here comes the girlfriend of the accused"
Salunkhe looked annoyed and so did Abhijeet.
"Sir, please..."
Salunkhe spoke to her.
"Tarika... why..."
She stopped him.
"I knew something was wrong when you sent me away to do something totally useless. I never really left. I heard everything. Oh... hello Vaibhav... good to see you. Now if you will excuse me I would like to see those reports myself."
Vaibhav handed over the reports to Tarika while Salunkhe said
"I checked them Tarika, they don't seem to be wrong"
Chitrole grunted.
"Why should everybody check now?"
"As a forensic doctor of this place, I believe I have the right and am qualified enough to check every case report that comes to this lab. If you are going to accuse someone in our jurisdiction, unless I am convinced, I am not going to let you proceed."
Saying so, Tarika took the report and flipped through the records. She then looked at Vaibhav.
"Your record is incomplete. I cannot approve this for submission in court"
"What? I have mentioned everything."
"Maybe... but I see 7 minutes are missing..."
"7 minutes?"
"Yes there is no data between 20.53 and 21.00 hrs which is the estimated time of death"
"But Dr. Tarika, that time is too short for anything different to have happened than the narrative we just explained..."
"Had you really paid some attention to the cases we solved here, you would have known that stranger things have taken place... and of course if you really had paid enough attention, you wouldn't be accusing Abhijeet in the first place."
"Tarika!!! Stop..."
"Why Dr. Salunkhe, don't you trust Abhijeet..."
Chitrole intervened.
"It's not about trust... It's about proofs that clearly point to Abhijeet being the killer. If you don't want to sign the approvals, then don't. I really don't care. But the law clearly states that any person who is a suspect in a murder case cannot be a part of CID.... ACP enough of all this, now that you have your proof, aren't you going to suspend your officer?"
The team looked shocked, Daya glared at Chitrole in anger.
"Suspend? Are you nuts?"
"Daya!!!"
It was ACP and one look from him Daya took a small step backwards. The respect he had for his father like mentor wasn't letting him say anything further. ACP turned and looked at Abhijeet who looked so downcast that his heart broke.
"Abhijeet... listen... I... uh..."
Abhijeet silently took out his gun and badge and handed it over to his senior.
"I know sir... It's your duty..."
Was all he said before he walked out. Daya looked at the team in front of him and walked angrily towards ACP and Chitrole. He had had enough of the drama. Everytime people found it easy to blame his brother.
"You know what... Enough of your drama... You need proof right? I'll go get you your proof..."
He looked directly at ACP.
"Sir... With due respect, I believe you are wrong in suspending Abhijeet... I won't be back until I get enough proofs to clear Abhijeet"
With that he stormed out of the lab. ACP caressed the badge in his hand and shut his eyes. Life always had a strange way of making him choose between duty and his heart.
***
Anupamaa
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
17