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Chapter 12

I was sipping the strong coffee after the conversation with Mr. Narayan Garg, the officer-in-charge of R. K Puram Police Station who had timidly verified the details of Priya Vashisht. He had told that Ansh Awasthy had paid him to not register the complaint against the rich brat. The worst part was, the police officer was judging the poor girl after all, she had been staying alone in Delhi.

I wondered it was easy for such people in the law and order system to call a girl ‘characterless’ without even understanding her helplessness and trauma.

I had collected the video evidence of the entire conversation and sent it to the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr. Rajesh Rai, in case it was required to take action against the police officer but as of now, the idea of punishing the corrupt police officer had taken backseat.

Mr. Rai snarled at me for not trying to find the whereabouts of Ansh Awasthy after all, he had immense political pressure on his shoulders regarding this case while the fear of death began to creep in my mind as I remembered Ansh’s warning, that he would take my life if I would not found his culprits in a fortnight.

I talked with Mr. Vinay Negi who told me that Ansh Awasthy had been threatening him in the months of October and November. The middle-aged man told that the rich brat blamed him for causing a rift between him and Priya. His wife and kids were visibly traumatized because of his insanity. They had even filed a complaint against the blackmails but Ansh Awasthy had pulled his cards to make sure the complaint was taken back though, after that, he had never disturbed them again.

I was thinking about Ansh Awasthy and his madness while solving a Rubik's cube when Rahul entered my office. Much to my dismay, the scowl on his face was the indication of some bad news. Rahul took the seat on one of the ergonomic chairs in the room and clarified, “Sir, I need to talk about the lane we discovered in the morning”.

I nodded while he continued, “Sir, my team observed the CCTV Footage of the florist shop in that lane and around that evening when Ansh Awasthy went missing, we found a Black Renault car with tinted glasses. It went towards Old Delhi, I mean we could follow it up to there only. We lost its track there at a red light and then, we could not locate the car.”

“What is the registration number of the car?” I asked getting worked up.

“Sir, it was a brand new car with A/F mentioned on the number plate”, Rahul told much to my disappointment.  With a deep sigh, Rahul continued, “The tag of Robert Motors was seen in the footage so we contacted the automobile showroom to know about the owner. It is found that the car was purchased twenty days ago by Raman Gupta.”

“Let’s meet this Raman Gupta, then", I demanded.

“Sir, I talked to Varun Gupta, his brother. He told that the car was lost on Wednesday, a day before Ansh’s disappearance.” Rahul revealed the new piece of information along with the copy of First Information Report about the missing car.

“How many brothers these Guptas are?” I stuttered as I remembered the headless spirit of Ansh Awasthy telling me about four masked men who killed him.

“Four", Rahul answered and ground swept off my feet. It did not take me much time to realize that the car was never lost in the first case. It was a high possibility that these Gupta brothers killed Ansh Awasthy but I could not understand why they would do so. Perhaps, Ansh had some animosity with these people too.

“I need the details of all these four brothers", I asked agitatedly while Rahul forwarded a black colored file to me.

As soon as I opened the file, I realized it contained the details of four brothers, Raman, Varun, Prem and Shekhar. All of the four brothers were in their thirties and co-owned a Stone Crushing Plant in Mahipalpur, New Delhi. Apart from this, Raman, the eldest brother owned a small restaurant in Paharganj. Varun, the second brother owned a butcher shop in the streets of Old Delhi. Prem, the third brother owned a traveling agency while Shekhar, the youngest brother owned a garage near Red Fort.

I was thinking about how these brothers could be linked with Ansh Awasthy, a son of rich and powerful industrialist when Rahul reasoned, “Sir, I think these brothers are speaking the truth. Perhaps, their car was stolen when they were enjoying on a Wednesday night.”

“No, Rahul. There is definitely something more to it”, I objected. With a deep sigh, I explained, “See, no kidnapper would use a Renault car for kidnapping someone. Renault is a common man's SUV, for God’s sake. This is not a conventional kidnapping. Plus, the youngest brother owns a garage. We need to dig more about Guptas.”

Rahul nodded in agreement and Radhika was summoned to dig in the records about the Guptas. While I decided to call Atharv Awasthy and find out if he knew something about these brothers or not, Radhika and Rahul decided to study the call records of these brothers with hopes to find some clue.

I demanded my subordinates to dig in the criminal records of these Gupta brothers after all, I was suspecting them for two reasons, firstly, Ansh had told that four people had kidnapped him to kill him at some unknown place, and secondly, while being in Lucknow, I had never come across with anyone who owned a Stone Crushing Plant and had a clear police record. With illegal mining being their domain, the owners of Stone Crushing Plants were involved in a wide range of crimes from murders to illegal supply of construction materials.

With plenty of thoughts in my mind, I decided to meet these Gupta brothers and soon a meeting was fixed in their restaurant in Paharganj.

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Word count: 1009

Hi everyone

This is the new update!

The story is soon coming to end!

So, how are Gupta brothers linked with Ansh?

And most importantly, are Guptas behind the murder?

I will be back soon, till then, VOTE, COMMENT AND SHARE 🥰

With immense love
♥️