Ravi was shaking his head feeling lost.
Dubey was saying, “A First Information Report needs to be filed. Karthik is not dead but had been made unconscious by Kaushik. Then Kaushik had escaped from the balcony of their room using the same rope with which Karthik had tried to strangulate himself. This had saved Karthik because the rope around his neck was for a duration that was not enough to strangulate him but however enough to make him faint. The Mumbai police had not filed a case of culpable homicide on the insistence of Karthik and the last time they saw him was when he boarded the train to Chennai.”
Ravi spoke, shell shocked, “It means on one hand as Kaushik always used his real name, it had been easy to track him, but now he’s dead. We need to find Karthik, who in the last five years could have easily gone anywhere, even disappeared from the face of the Earth.”
He continued, “We need to start the hunt to find Karthik, and file an FIR saying Kaushik, now deceased, had kidnapped Karthik. We can even put an attempt to murder on him.”
Dubey spoke irritated, “You can put a thousand cases on Kaushik. But we are not going to ask the court to remand his corpse in custody! The point we need to file an FIR is to keep this as a record. Also this Karthik will be roaming with an alias, if he is alive even today.” That’s what my gut feeling says.
****
Both the policemen had summoned the two men to their room. The inference had been reached.
Dubey spoke, “We shall file an FIR for the purpose of record and call this case as closed.
However, we need to continue to hunt for Karthik, who could be anywhere now, for calling this case as solved and not closed. I am sure; someday Karthik will resurface somewhere to help us solve this case.”
He observed the two men. No emotions shown. Their mind would be as hard as a rock.
As of now, due to no evidence or the lack of it, I have no option but to release you.
Bhagwandas and Puneet Mishra walked away free, from the railway station, hand in hand.
The latter asked, “Why don’t you stay at my place till tomorrow?”
****
Time passed. Four more years down the line, Bhagwandas, although caught in the shackles of his past, moved on with life. The marriage with Aarti in Chennai was blessed by both the Inspector and the constable, apart from his friends.