Murder at Crescent Point (19 page)

Interrogator: Did you ask her name?

Ashraf: In our business we do not ask names of the customers nor tell ours.

Interrogator: Can you describe the woman?

Ashraf: It is very difficult to do so after so many years. She met me only once and that too for a short time. As far as I can recall she appeared to be an ordinary looking housewife.

ACP Rajan switched off the player.

Nikki was amazed. ‘How come the man confessed all this so easily?’

‘It was not easy. We interrogated him for full two days and two nights. We also brought in the
ojha
to whom he had confessed his guilt. The
ojha
recounted the same facts before him and he did not contradict them. Your photographer friend Satish’s evidence was also useful. He corroborated the testimony of the
ojha
with regard to the incident of that night. But there were two other irrefutable pieces of evidence. One was the recovery of artificial diamond earrings from his room and the other was the matching of his footprints with the footprints lifted by the forensic people from Crescent Point.’ He added, ‘With this kind of evidence there was hardly any choice for Ashraf but to confess his crime.’

‘There is one more thing.’ The ACP added, ‘Human nature is very complex. Even criminals have a conscience hidden somewhere deep within them. It can be triggered by anything. In this case his feeling of guilt for having killed an innocent young girl and his fear of burning in hell might have also contributed to his admission.’

Nikki asked, ‘Who could be that woman who commissioned Ashraf?’

ACP Rajan sighed, ‘Hmmm…we have shown him the photographs of Mrs Taneja and also Mrs Khanna. We went to the length of showing him the photograph of Mary, Mr Taneja’s old secretary thinking that she was the only other person who could be privy to the information about Asha Sayal. But we have drawn a blank.’

Who could be that woman?
wondered Nikki.

— CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR —

The Final Confession

Conjectures about the mysterious woman were not leading the police, the Taneja family or Nikki anywhere, until the news of the suicide of a woman in Shyamabad changed all this. The news report was as follows:

SENSATIONAL CONFESSION OF A DYING WOMAN

A middle-aged woman was yesterday admitted to the Shyamabad Municipal Hospital. She had consumed rat poison and while fighting for her life she gave the following statement to the police:

What I have done is unpardonable not only in this world but even in the house of God. Two days ago, I read the news of the arrest of Ashraf for the murder of the innocent young girl Jyoti and the woman Asha Sayal. After reading it the burden on my mind became unbearable and I have decided to end my life. I feel guilty that I am the one responsible for Jyoti’s death. Had I not asked Ashraf to kill Asha Sayal, Jyoti would have been alive today. I loved Jyoti very much and she was like my own child. Four years back when I came to know that Asha Sayal had made a claim on Jyoti I was very disturbed. I went to see her at the hotel on Bus Stand Road and tried to persuade her not to meddle with the life of my young girl. The woman was stubborn. She showed me a bank statement in which
10 lakhs were entered against her name. She said, ‘When this money was first offered to me to drop my claim on Jyoti, I refused point blank. Later I reconsidered the matter. I thought that with this kind of money I could take my daughter from Sangalina Hills and raise her in comfort. So I took it’.

I told her that this would amount to a breach of faith on her part. She retorted, ‘What happened to the “faith” when Mr Taneja in connivance with my greedy husband swapped his dead daughter with my living and healthy child without my knowledge?’

I tried to plead with her that she should not interfere in the life of a young girl with a promising future. But she remained adamant and said that she was going to Sangalina Hills the next morning to get custody of Jyoti by any means necessary. I was convinced that she would not change her mind. It was then that I contacted Ashraf and gave him my life’s savings and some jewellery which my mother had given me.

When I later came to know that the wretched man had also killed Jyoti I wanted the earth to open and swallow me. I continued in Somabad for some time but things were becoming more and more unbearable for me. Eventually I left and started living in Shyamabad incognito.

I want to seek forgiveness from Mr and Mrs Taneja for causing them immeasurable pain. Perhaps after my death, I will meet my beautiful Jyoti and at that time ask her to forgive me for cutting short her life at such a tender age.

According to the police sources, the name of the woman was Savitri.