Bombay Romance ♡ COMPLETED

[ 63 ] State vs Amarnath ■

'People should've protested by now, Raju bhai ... ' Suraj sounds doubtful. 'Why is everyone silent?'

'They will ... ' Rajashekaran's voice is lazy with whiskey. 'It is the silence before the storm ... let his court hearing day come. People always get angry when they actually see that person ... we'll enjoy the show ... there'll be a huge crowd in front of the court against him ... '

'But ... '

'It was you, right?' Rajashekeran lifts the whiskey glass at him. 'That inspector shot near the warehouse ... ?'

Suraj looks down at his empty glass.

'Didn't I tell you not to do anything like that?' he asks.

'Bhai, I thought that bastard would suffer if his fri-'

'Suraj. I don't want any other news overshadowing this. This should be the main news in the papers every day.'

Suraj isn't too happy with all this. All the hatching and plotting take too much time to yield results. Would be so much easier to just shoot the bloody Amarnath dead. He bids Rajashekaran goodbye. The sun sets as he gets out of the building, into the waiting Ambassador and whizzes away.

Ten minutes later, the man selling vegetables on the street pushes his cart along the road next to the building to the far end and turns right. He picks up the small radio transmitter hidden among the coir bags, takes an auto and reaches Nehru Nagar. He walks five hundred metres to the office of the Zonal DCP.

'Saab!' he salutes.

Parthiban looks up. 'Any updates?'

'No Saab. They're not speaking anything directly.'

Parthiban frowns. It has been days since a tiny microphone was planted in Rajashekaran's house. Undercover constables stand on the street to catch the frequency; sometimes as vegetable vendors, sometimes as a homeless man sleeping below the giant people tree, and sometimes as a cycle idliwala. But not even a single conversation that can be of help has surfaced.

All this for that Amarnath's case, Parthiban thinks bitterly. I was so relaxed before he came here. Such a nice rapport we had, Rajshekaran and I. Then, this fellow came. Everything's spoiled. I hope those two speak something useful and this case closes soon.

'Who's there now?' he asks the constable.

'Ji Saab. Surinder. And Saab, they spoke about Amarnath Saab's lawyer. He's on their side.'

Parthibna nods, not too surprised. 'Good. Be alert. Always keep the cassette ready to record.'

●●●

A week later:

Bombay Samachar newspaper headlines:

Amarnath Duggal's alleged sexual assault and attempt to rape case court hearing today

●●●

Parthiban walks up to the back of the police bus where Amarnath is seated with a few inspectors. The inspectors move to the front of the bus on cue. Parthiban sits on the seat opposite Amarnath's, across the aisle.

'Amar,' he says.

Amarnath turns to his former batchmate.

'Look, this is how Bombay is,' Parthiban crosses his arms, looking outside through the tiny metal-grill window. 'Either they should be dead or we should be their friends. You can't survive by becoming their enemy.'