“I can’t believe my ears” he commented. The other man in the room too was stunned. Here was a video they were watching wherein a confession was about to be made. Constable Ravi Ratnam of the Railway Police Force had pressed the pause button on the video at the behest of his senior, Inspector Dubey of the Andhra Pradesh Police Department.
“How did you come across this pen drive?” the senior officer questioned, pointing to the crimson red rectangular device attached to the laptop.
Dutifully, Ravi spoke, of the saga that had unfolded in the past six hours, which had brought him acquainted with Dubey. He knew he had to get all the facts right, at least to the best of his knowledge, so that he would not be in trouble tomorrow, if not being hailed as one of the most observant cop in service. He was happy that he had been asked. He was itching to tell it. He recalled everything from the very beginning.
The lone train engine was sent early today morning at daybreak to check the sturdiness of the track near the forested area of the Tamil Nadu — Andhra Pradesh border. It is a routine exercise that is performed everyday to ascertain any defects in track. Today was no different until the driver spotted a corpse lying on the trackside. Fortunately, he did not panic and at the same time did not investigate it as well. All he did was to inform the station master of the body that lay face down beside the track. The station master alerted the developments to the Railway Police Force and a team of five constables with a head constable on duty was sent to the scene. I was one among them.
I don’t know the exact geographic coordinates of the place where this body was found. However, from what the station master told me, the man could have been travelling only in Tamil Nadu Express, because that’s the last train to use the track beside which the body was found. Also, since the track was the left most of the three tracks available on the stretch, it was gathered the man was either pushed or had deliberately jumped using the left side door of the coach. It does not seem possible that the man would have accidentally fell out of the train, maybe while leaning out of the coach, because his body was found with face hit on the ground. Also as glass pieces were found beneath the body, pierced into him, which could have actually caused the death, according to the medical doctor who has conducted the post mortem on him.
However, it could be purely accidental that he had landed on the glass pieces when he ejected out of the train for there were glass pieces beside all four sides of his body. The doctor puts the time of death at sometime just before mid-night, which could be again used to confirm the fact that the man indeed travelled by Tamil Nadu Express, the train which had crossed that location around the same time yesterday. Also another reason that lends credibility to the fact that the man indeed travelled by the train is the fact that one person is missing in the first class AC coach. However, another man – the only other person - is here in Vijayawada in our custody along with the TTE. This information was given by the Train Ticket Examiner who was on duty for that coach, and has alighted here in Vijayawada.
If you want sir, I can request him to speak to you. The RPF has nonetheless, requested him to present himself as regards this case, whenever summoned. He has accepted to put forth full cooperation with all the authorities. By the way, I have gathered the names of the only two passengers who had been in the penultimate coach of the train, the first class AC coach. Their names were....
“But what about the pen drive, Ravi” questioned Dubey.
Ravi looked startled at being suddenly interrupted.
“How did you get it?” Dubey completed his question.
Ravi complied to answer with his senior’s latest question. He continued his monologue, being specific to the question put forth.
“As we had reached near the body, we tried to overturn it to identify the man’s face. It could have been possible that he was any bystander, although the possibility looked remote. Then, we started searching his clothes, to find any clue that could tell us who he was. He was wearing Peter England shirt and trousers. The striped yellow shirt looked perfect with the creaseless, well ironed black trousers. What we met with although was an unsuccessful search. As I just looked up a bit ahead from where his head lay, I had observed a small object. It turned out to be this pen drive sir”, he concluded pointing to the pen drive that had now been connected to the laptop. He knew he had not described the depressions the body contained and the dried blood that had oozed out due to the glasses that had pierced him. It was indeed a gory sight to see. He felt relieved he did not have to describe that to him.
Dubey, listening keenly, now spoke, “It now means that the pen drive would likely have been in the shirt pocket of the deceased and due to the impact and force of his fall to the ground, it is very much possible that the pen drive would have ejected out of his pocket to fall some distance away”.
He nodded to himself in approval.
“Do the two witnesses know about the body and pen drive you had found?”
“They know we found the body, sir. But I did not mention the pen drive, thinking the police should check it first”.
He nodded to himself in approval, again.