Graves Beneath the Feet (Complete)

Chapter 34

"N..oth..ing...n..nn..othing.. What is this? A joke?"
Sidharth smiles and putting his hand on his shoulder, he presses it and says,"No..It never was and never will be a joke. Killing people is never a joke Rajan." Everyone looks at him as Sidharth continues,"There was never a letter hidden anywhere. Roshini never had left any note for you. But you could not control your excitement to see her, to read something related to her. Your obsession with her never ended even after her death.."

Rajan looks at him and replies,"What do you mean to say? You have no proof against me. I don't know any Roshini." Sidharth says,"Who said that I don't have proofs? I have everything against you." He continues,"You were in Surat five years ago. You were the Chief Guest at the Roshini's college where you had met her the first time. I have talked to the Principal there and he confirms your presence. I have also seen the video of annual function that clearly shows you talking to her and sitting and watching Roshini dancing performance on the stage." "Yes..I..I..am not denying that I was in Surat and yes I was a Chief Guest at some college funtion there. But I don't remember meeting Roshini. There were so many girls in that function." Sidharth says,"Ofcourse this could be nothing. But you see you had called her several times from your phone and had been to her house too. Roshini's father had confirned that. And Roshini's phone record shows your phone number too."

Rajan starts to laugh,"These are the proofs you are talking about. I was in Surat, I went to her college, I went to her house, I called her. Even if these are correct, you can't prove anything. Is any of these illegal?" "No. Not at all. None of these are wrong or illegal but these were enough to lead me towards you." He says then,"You got transferred to Gandhinagar and got married. But your obsession with her never stopped. Roshini had moved to Mumbai by then. You still called her, texted her and stalked her over internet. You were a Diploma Engineer before you got IPS. You knew how to use virtual number and fake IP addresses. But you forgot something, there are people who are even smarter than you."

Sidharth turns towards Gaikwards who says,"Our trump card Sunny, the genius boy. Few junk food and cans of cold drinks and in no time he got us the location of virtual number as well as the real IP address." Sidharth says then,"Yes. The virtual number brought us to Pune. This is where I doubted both Jay and Devesh. Jay had his house in Pune and Devesh was posted there. But I came to know that you too have a connection with Pune. Your wife belongs to Pune, right? In fact the flat where we went, is registered under your wife's sister-in-law's name." "See I can too do some digging like you.", he smiles as he says. "The computer that we found in that house was wiped clean but still we found photographs of Roshini and your conversation with her. And the IP address is yours. You need more proofs?", Sidharth says.

Rajan sits down on the chair holding that paper. Sidharth says,"You were always the silent types. I knew you always had something against me when we were in the training academy. However I had never thought you had so much hate for me." Rajan says,"Yes I hated you as you had everything. You had a loving family and friends. I had seen you laughing, crying and getting so much love from your father and mother when they had come to visit you in Hyderabad. I came from a broken family, where all I had see  is my parents fighting like animals. I had found you getting calls from your friends too but no one called me. Everyone was always attracted towards your look and personality. Geeta, remember her. I liked her but she was mad about you. You were made the topper, you got your desired posting and I was left behind always. Why? Yes I hated you and I got a chance to frame you in this case. I knew Govind planned to kill the mastermind at the end. So I was waiting for him to kill you."

Rajan lowers his head and asks,"Was the recording and photo fake?" "No.", replies Sidharth. Rajan with hate in his eyes says,"You can't possibly walk on when you have graves beneath your feet. How could I allow those bas**rds to live after they killed my love?" He continues,"For the first time in my life, I was in love. Roshini was such a beautiful and intelligent girl. I couldn't take my eyes off her the moment I met her. She liked me too. Yes. We used to talk for hours and had been on dinners too. I had dropped her home few times. But.. she was not interested in marriage. She wanted to become a movie star. She fought with me and left for Mumbai. I had tried to meet her, call her, begging her to return back to me.. but.." He takes a deep breath and says,"My parents have passed away. My aunt who took care of me was sick and wanted to see me married, before her death. So I married Barsha. It was an arranged marriage. I came to know about that flat in Pune and took the keys assuring Barsha's Baini(sister-in-law) that I will put it on rent. I set up my another world there and worked on keeping an eye on Roshini."

Sidharth says,"You were married still.." Rajan laughed, "Barsha belonged to a rich family and she loved her lifestyle. Parties, shopping, dinner with friends. I tried to be a part of it for sometime but I couldn't tag along her always. I never loved her nor received any affection from her. I still loved Roshini and wanted to get her back. I used to call her, send texts asking her to return. But she was adamant. Then I came to know about her suicide. I.. I went to Mumbai and tried to find out about the case. There I saw Govind and overheard everything. Big names were involved in the case so he was not taken seriously. There was no proof against them too. So I devised a plan to punish everyone using Govind. 10 calls, four days and he was ready to do everything." Rajan looks up at Sidharth,"My plan was full proof. Nobody could have doubted me. Murders were committed by Govind  so if caught he would have charged for the murders. He didn't know me. He knew Sidharth was the caller. He wanted to kill him. So Sidharth woukd have been killed too.   But you.. I had forgotten how sharp you are, always one step ahead of me.."

Sidharth says looking at Rajan,"Love can't be forcefully made yours. Roshini never loved you but you never understood that. You could have been her friend, be there for her when she was harassed. However you chose to stalk her, forcing her to come to you. When she died, instead of giving her justice, you went on to take revenge. You are a police officer. How could you forget that?" He pauses and then says"You could have collected proofs and arrested those culprits who forced her to die but no you didn't do anything like that. Actually your anger, your obsession had made you think otherwise. You started looking for ways to take revenge." Sidharth turns towards Bhonsale and signals him. He goes out to call the people to arrest him. Sidharth turns towards Rajan again,"I had always considered you as my friend. Believing that my life is perfect was stupidity. No one's life can be perfect." Sidharth stops, his voice cracks a bit,"You think.. my life.. was good..You didn't know the man who was laughing and hugging me that day at the academy, my father.. was at that time taking chemotherapy for his cancer... All three years I was there, I have lived.. out of fear of losing him.. Life is never a bed of roses for anyone. We all have some problems to face at some time or the other." Taking a deep breath he continues,"I was the topper as I had worked hard and not for any other reasons. No one knew me or my father.  Who liked me or found me attractive..( He smiles) is not in my hand. If somebody was mad for me, it can't possibly be my fault. So basically you hated me for no reasons."

Policemen who were outside enter his house and put handcuffs on Rajan's wrists. Before leaving Sidharth says,"Blaming others for our problems is never a solution. Life can be made meaningful with our own decisions. You had a job that could help several others. You could have helped Roshini whom you claim to love. But instead you chose a path that is taking to behind the bars today."

Sidharth looks at Devesh,"I knew you never had seen or met Roshini. I said everything only to create mystery. I know you are..jealous but you never wanted to frame me. You say everything on people's face, that helped me to figure out that you couldn't be the one." Devesh sits down on the chair and replies,"I just can't believe what just happened. Rajan? Rajan did everything? It's difficult to accept. And the way you were putting everything on me, for an instant I really thought may be I am indeed the mastermind." Sidharth starts to laugh as he continues,"I am really sorry for everything I had said. But it's actually true. I used to feel jealous but I could never try to hurt you or frame you for wrong thing. I am a cop and I respect my profession." Sidharth puts his hand on his shoulder and says,"I know."

Sidharth goes near Jay and he stands up. Sidharth says,"And Jay my friend, sorry to doubt you. I always knew you were never the one. But this is just a hazard of my job, I have to suspect everyone. No hard feelings dude!" Jay replies,"Bhai, main toh sapne mein bhi itni planning nahi kar sakta. You could have understood there only. Itna dimag hota toh doctor ya engineer nahi banta. And one request, don't try to do this again. I had come here for having a good time with friends with food and drink. And you were planning to give me a heart attack." Sidharth starts to laugh as he hugs Jay," Sorry my friend.." Jay whispers,"Sorry se nahi hoga. Jaldi se shaadi kar aur badi si party de. Samjha. Then only I will forgive you." Sidharth smiles at him and says," Done."

Finally over.. Criminals arrested and put behind bars. Many of you were right in their guessing.. well done detectives.👍👏👏Epilogue left.. coming up soon in few moments.. find out what is the epilogue..
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Let the suspense continue..