I Don't know why

1.The suicide

“I don’t know why sir” ,the principal of a reputed engineering college told me , when I enquired about the suicide of a 3 rd year student . I am Veera raghavan sub inspector of police , this engineering college lies within my jurisdiction and that’s how I was ordered to look after this case ,I was accompanied with baskaran who is trainee sub inspector ,I went to the crime scene about 11 p.m , I saw the girl wearing a jeans pant and checked shirt hanging with saree tied around her neck , the saree was tied to the fan .There was no blood , no damaged articles , the room was quite calm and tidy except the fact that a 20 years old girl is hanging . As I was trying to collect the evidence, baskaran was just following me and was taking notes on whatever I was doing , it was kind of annoying ,I took my mobile to out of my pocket to check for any messages as it was in silent mode, he wrote in his tiny note ‘ took phone out of the pocket’ , I was frustrated of this note taking and said to him “ when I say ‘note it’ ,u note it , ok? “ he replied with a police voice “ YES SIR “ , then I ordered  the people to bring the body down and asked the lady police to check the pockets of her pants , there was a purse on one pocket and some 70rs cash on the other pocket , her shirt was pocketless . after a thorough check of the room and the body I ordered the ambulance people to take the body . I couldn’t find anything like a suicide note or anything relevant to it, infact I asked her room mate to search all her note books whether she had mentioned any cause for her suicide but we couldn’t  find anything . with empty handed I came out of that room and then out of the girls hostel of the college.

    “she is my best friend sir “ ,the crying  arundhathi’s first words ,she is the room mate and friend of the dead girl rathika. “ did she told anything to you that she is going to commit suicide or did she mentioned about anything that is so depressing which could have caused this ?” I asked her , “no sir not at all infact we were celebrating the farewell party for our final year students, I came back to the room about 10 p.m and that’s when I found her like this”,she replied controlling her tears , “is that mean she left before you from the party?” ,I asked her , “no sir , she didn’t came to the party, if she had came i wouldn’t have let her do this kind of thing”, she said , “Did you asked her why she is not attending the party” I asked her expecting the motive of suicide to be revealed , “she said she is having an head ache, yet I forced her to attend because I was performing a dance in the stage, still she didn’t came ” she said , “ yes sir we too forced her too much but she convinced all of us “ said all the other friends of rathika . After enquiring everything I couldn’t come to any conclusion for the motive of the suicide,

Then I moved on to the next approach which could be the potential cause for the most college suicides ‘ACADEMICS’ , I asked her class incharge to bring all the marksheet and score profile of rathika , and I enquired him while he was searching for her profile , “tell about her sir , is she one of the low scorers who was afraid to tell their failure to the parents or the top scorers who are so sensitive to a sudden failure” I asked , with a short smile in his sad face he replied “ she is the other ones sir, she never failed till now , she was one of our toppers in the college , she presented many projects to various universities , she was already selected to do post graduation in a world ranking university in newyork” we are , surprised from his reply I searched her profile and found that in all semester exams she was the  topper ,the lowest grade she got was B which was also a one time fault in 2nd year. confused with this weird replies from everyone I started walking out of the staff room , baskaran was standing casually at 50 meters apart from me , as soon as he saw me, he stood in attention posture and everyone started looking me weird because of his actions, they may be thinking that I am the one who is asking him to do this weird stuffs , I went near him and said “ look  we are here to investigate a suicide, if you are doing police stuff like this everyone will be afraid to tell the truth to us and hide something which is really really important for the case , so for godsake think of me as your partner , stop this army postures and note takings like you are in some  science lab,,, but still call me sir ,no name calling, ok ?, with a casual voice he replied “ ok sir” , which gave me a great relief. As I was walking towards the main gate I saw arundathi ,the room mate , her friends and some 50 people who must have been rathika’s room mate standing near the hostel ,some with sad face and some crying. But there was a boy who was crying vigourously , as for me it never looked like a friend crying for his pals death ,it was more than that , believing in my intuition I went near him and asked him “ is rathika your close friend “ , “ no sir , she is my life , she is my everything , she is my love” crying out loud he said , and that’s it ,finally I got something to cheer up , I was saying to myself ‘how could you miss that’  , I  gave the boy some water to drink and accompanied him to the nearest class room, closed the door , me, baskaran and santhosh ,the boy who confessed his love affair with rathika was the only three person in the room . “Tell me boy , who is it , is it your parents or their parents, who denied your love ?” I asked . “ no one denied our love sir , both our families were friends and they know we are in love , infact they are planning to get us married once we finished our college and get a job” he said ,, “So is it you , did you told her anything harsh or you did anything which forced her to do this” baskaran asked him , this was the first time he started investigating , atlast I got another brain which is also thinking about this case,” no sir not at all , we were very happy , ask anyone sir , just see this message conversation between me and her at 9 p.m” said while showing his mobile phone to me , the conversation was

santhosh : sweety where are you ? 7.40 p.m

Rathika :sorry darling , I am having a slight head ache could not come to the party  7.42 p.m

santhosh : oh ok sweety , take rest , call me if you need anything , bye take care  7.43 p.m

Rathika : sure darling , have fun , bye 7.45 p.m 

santhosh : sweety ,party is full of fun ,…….. missing you badly L 9 p.m

Rathika : I miss you too darling , hate this headache L 9.01 p.m

‘What the hell’ I asked myself , she was replying quite normally just few minutes before she decided to commit suicide , is she a psychopath, I could not come to a conclusion , I asked the constable to bring the girls mobile phone , searched the call log and messages . the last message conversation was the one with santhosh , I searched the call log she had a 5 min conversation with ‘DAD’ at 9.15 p.m , probably the last communication she had before she committed suicide. To meet the girl’s father, I should go to the hospital where the body has been taken for post mortem, before leaving I asked santhosh “ do you have anything to say to us, that could be helpful in finding the motto of your girl friends suicide?” , “for now I don’t know why she did something like this sir, but I would do anything to find the cause for my loss, ask me anything ,anytime sir , I will help you sir “ he said it crying yet confident to find the cause  just like me. I left the college accompanied with baskaran, he was driving the car while I was puzzled why this girl who has got almost everything one would love to have in his life , she got great talent , she got her love to marry her ,as per santhosh’s statement , as far as I enquired she was coming from a very rich background , so do santhosh’s family ,there is nothing that could cause her to do like this ,still there is a piece left in the puzzle which could change the entire thing , what if santhosh lied , what if hers or his family denied their marriage request for some reasons which may also involve santhosh which forced him to lie to me , all this answers could be found now at the hospital, baskaran looked at me and asked “Got anything sir” , “I don’t have anything now , it all depends on what her parents are having for us” ,I replied .

               We went to mortuary where rathika’s postmortem is taking place , we saw some 12-13 people standing there , some crying ,some sad faces , I went to one guy who was tall ,well built, his eyes were so red , probably because he cried to much, whom I guessed to be rathika’s father , and my guess was correct and he was her father, , I introduced myself to him and asked him “ Sir do you know the fact that your daughter is in love with a guy named santhosh?” , “yes sir we know , the guy over there (pointing a grown men in the group ) he is santhosh’s father and we had planned to keep the wedding after they finished their graduation” he said with a mild voice , “Did she mentioned anything to you when you called her at 9.15 p.m” ,I asked him expecting he would finish the puzzle, “no sir she said she is having an head ache and she is taking rest in her room” he replied , suddenly the hospital worker produced the body to the family and everyone went towards rathika’s body and started crying and I can’t continue the enquiry anymore and we left the mortuary and came out.

        “she don’t have anything to actually worry in life , the only thing may be her B grade in a subject in 2nd year, will you commit suicide if you scored B grade baskar ?” I asked baskar with a smile, “ I never scored B grade in my graduation sir” he replied , “oh, you are that much intelligent?” I asked, “ no sir , it’s the other way around , my highest grade was D “ he replied while laughing, we shared a laugh after this long confusing night , and then a ward boy in the hospital came to me and said “ Sir , doctor asked me to call you” , both of us went to doctor’s cabin ,I told baskar to take his note and note down the points and  asked the doctor  “So Doctor , can you tell me the approximate time of her suicide?” , “there is a problem” the doctor replied , “ why doctor what’s the problem” I asked ,and  he gave this shocking reply “ you said it was a suicide , but it was a MURDER “