“The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.”
As I prepared myself mentally for what was probably going to be my toughest interview till date, I had also invited the possibility of Abhimanyu not being the culprit. That was the first rule of our designation- “Do not have any prejudices”. Even if he is the culprit, I knew that it was not going to be easy to get him to confess. I started the interrogation with the formal opening statement,
“”My name is Ananya Desai, I work for Neesham Police Department. My role today is to interview you in relation to the offence(s) you’ve been arrested for. I will be recording this conversation purely for my reference.”
He just smiled back as a reply. There were absolutely no signs of tension or worry in his face. I continued,
“I now need to caution you, and it’s important that you understand what the caution means, so you do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?”
He just nodded his head. Nothing seem to get to him.
“You have the right to remain silent and the right to attorney. Do you need a lawyer?”
He nodded again, this time, sideways, indicating that he doesn’t need one.
“Why not! Is it because you are confident of fighting your own case?”
He smiled and spoke for the first time, “It is because I confess of my crimes.”
I was scandalized for a moment. I was not expecting a confession that soon. “Is it how my final case going to end!” Something was not right there and I felt that it was all part of his plan. I stopped the recording and erased the past five minutes’ conversation. I didn’t want my final interrogation to end that way.
“Do you realize that the punishment would be severe if you try to mislead the system? Anything you want to add or change about your answer?”
“Yes ma’am. I want to add something. It started 42 years back and I killed each one of those 14 victims myself. 14, in the eyes of the law. I killed many more. None of those murders were instinctive. Each one was planned and sketched well before and I have no regrets.”
Well, he continued to amaze me! I then had nothing else to ask, related to the case. But I felt that that encounter was incomplete. I wanted to know everything about him. As I generally did, I wanted to read him.
“Do you remember anything about your real parents?”
“Of course, I remember them dying. Our home was robbed and when my parents resisted, they slit my mother’s throat and bludgeoned my father to death. I was about three at that time and they left me alone.” he said casually.
No wonder he turned into a monster that he was!
“So, how did it all start?”
“I used to have nightmares about my parents’ death and that is when I started having episodes of insomnia. My foster father used to drink and torture me and my foster mother daily. One day, he was beating us like hell and I tried to run away. But I stayed back, thinking of my mother’s condition. I looked around and that is when I found a wire on the floor. I took it and as I strangled it around his neck, that was the moment I found my ultimate medicine to sleep, may be pleasure. As the wire pierced through the layers of his skin and the blood started dripping slowly, I found the solace of my life. As it was my first time, I remember every single detail. Slowly, his face turned blue and his tongue started hanging out until his chest. As he left his last breath, my chest felt lighter. And as he fell down, I felt as if tons of weight was unloaded from upon me. I knew instantly that it was going to be my addiction. My mother was shocked and called the police to spin a story about a mysterious man who murdered my father. That was the day when for the world, a monster was born and for me, an angel!”
I was not at all shocked. I have heard many such cases before in my career. I began to think that he is just any other criminal. I wanted to confirm it by asking one question which shatters almost every criminal,
“Can you please explain to me how can a person find pleasure in pain?”
He replied with a question, “Officer, how often do you pray?”
“I don’t believe in god.”
“Do you have children?”
“Yes”
“When you buy something for them, they look happy. How do you feel when you see a smile on their face then?”
“Unmatchable! That’s the best thing in the world.”
“When my children come to visit me during my guest time, they look elated. They hug me and kiss me and I feel nothing! It doesn’t make a difference when they laugh. It’s not that I don’t want to be happy. Every single moment of my life, I probe for happiness in everything that crosses my path, in vain. I find happiness only when I see blood and that too when I make it spill myself.”
“How did you manage to stay under the radar all these years?”
“Deception! I volunteered myself to the observational facility and volunteering patients are the ones who get minimum security. My mother taught me how to hide behind the shadows of the department itself. I was always under your scanner. You were looking when I made the plans, you were looking when I set the targets and you were looking when I sneaked out regularly. You were just looking, not observing! And every time you had to solve the murder case, you were focusing your view everywhere except under your own cameras.”
Brilliant! Why do criminals always have to be this clever! But no matter what, intelligence can never negate a person’s vileness.
“What about the lives of the people you’ve murdered? Do you have no regards for their future and their family?”
“Ma’am, right from the moment I killed my foster father, my mother understood that this is not a one-time affair and this is going to turn into an addiction. She always used to say, “Our country has absolutely no shortage for criminals. If you have no other choice than to be a criminal yourself, then better clean the existing ones.” You speak about the future and families I have destroyed. Just take a peep into the lives of those families. They are better off without them, than with them. Among the people I killed, there was a father who sexually harassed his own daughter. There was a son who caged his mother and tortured her for money. There was a brother who killed his sister’s lover to protect his family name. There was a guy who gang raped his lover in the company of his friends. Every time I strangle these people with my wire, I feel that I have made this world a better place and gave their families, a better future.”
“If you have confessed, it means you are ready to face the noose. Then why are you trying to justify your crimes?”
“Your question, my answer!”
What he did was a good thing for the society. But a person who finds pleasure in killing someone can never be an angel. He is nothing more than a monster! Everyone has their own reasons and everyone has their own targets, but at the end of the day, they are criminals. One question remains in my head though, which I had to get an answer from him,
“Why now? You’ve been successful all these days, so why stop now? Are you tired of running?”
His dangerous looking grin is back. He replied, “I am never tired. You have enlisted my name as the primary suspect. The moment you did it, my cover is blown. From now, it would difficult for me to work in the shadows. Once I reach the limit of my endurance and I lose my channel, I may attack someone innocent. The first thing my mother taught me is to use the wire on myself before killing an innocent and here I am.”
Well, he asked for it! I just had a conversation with one of the great thinkers I have ever met. But inevitably, we had to declare the death sentence. Within days, he was all over the news. Our department concealed the details about his confession and everyone tagged his death as one of the most efficient pieces of work our department has ever done. The world has finally got ridden of a monster!
_____________________________________________________________
FEW MONTHS LATER,
AREA13,
NEAR RANN OF KUTCH.
An area which never existed on paper. No citizen knew what happens there. Every year, hundreds of criminals go missing. Police are criticized for letting criminals escape and giving pardon to the ones who committed deadly crimes. We can’t do a thing with our hands tied down by the law, media and human rights association. So, we came up with a solution- Area 13. It is virtually non-existing in the daily lives of people. All those missing criminals are the ones who are shifted to Area 13, all those who escape are hunted down and dragged back there and all the deadly ones who are pardoned are diverted there. There the old and dead tradition of “third degree” comes back to life. Information is extracted from the criminals by any means. Criminals are given the treatment they deserve. Rape culprits are castrated, murderers are tortured. Death is just another part of the day there.
For the world, Abhimanyu is dead. But I shifted him to the Area 13, not as a prisoner, but as a recruit.
After my retirement, I used to be a regular visitor and mentor there. It was the first day of his work after the training. I was waiting to see him, standing outside the interrogation chamber and seeing through the glass window. The prisoner was a police officer who raped a tribal girl of 14 and killed her and her family. It was absolutely quiet, as if he was waiting for his death.
After a long pause of silence, entered Abhimanyu, with the wire in his hand.
euphoricwrites 