Cold Wars - a Lawyer-Cop Romance

Police Station

She reached Chanda and Bhanu’s house within 5 minutes. She mentioned the issue to her senior and her need to leave. Since he was a compassionate man, he relieved her for the day. She sped on her scooter to reach their home. There were people in front of the house, some people looking over their property wall and some others peeping from their porches and balconies. She parked her scooter and ran into the house. Some people recognized her and moved out of her way. She saw Bhanu on the couch, eyes all puffed after crying for a long time. She dropped her helmet on a nearby stool and went towards Bhanu. She was surrounded by some of her neighbours. When Bhanu saw her, she immediately jumped up and grabbed both Shankaree’s hands with both her hands and said “Oh you’re here. I don’t know what to do. Please help me. They are saying he sold Pan Masala, dear.” And burst into tears. Bhanu squeezed Shankaree’s hands and kept weeping.

“Aunty, I’m here. Don’t worry, we’ll sort this out okay. Please rest. I’ll need to hear what exactly happened.” Bhanu loosed the grip on Shankaree’s hands and said “I wasn’t there. But our neighbour who runs the nearby stall saw everything.”

“Ok. I’ll talk to him. Please rest.”

A person came forward and introduced himself. “I’m the person who saw Chanda being arrested. I have a shop opposite to Chanda’s stall”.

“You are their neighbour as well?” she asked. “Yes, my name is Antony.”

“OK, you will have to tell me what exactly you saw, but before that, which station was he taken to?” she asked.

“Central Police Station,” Antony said very promptly.

“Lets talk on the way. Can you come with me?”

“I’m scared of the police, Madam. Please don’t let me be involved. I can tell you everything now. I don’t want any part of this other than that.” He said, but he had the decency to be ashamed. Shankaree was annoyed by the fact that this man, Antony, wasn’t going to be of much help. ‘Might as well get all the information’, she thought.

“I will try not to include you in any way. But I need to know what happened.”

Antony described in detail how Anti-Narcotics police barged into Chanda’s stall and said he was storing and selling Pan masala. They raided his stall and found 500 packets of pan masala. It was all too quick. When I ran towards them, the officers said he was being arrested. They told me that he’s being taken to the District Anti-Narcotics Office. I didn’t have enough time to make sense of what happened. It was so scary.”

Shankaree heard and processed the information. ‘A super-fast raid?’

“It was too quick?” she asked. “Yes. That is weird, right? It was too fast. I mean Chanda’s stall is a small one but it was over too fast..” Antony paused and immediately Shankaree said it like a whisper, mostly “.. like they knew where it was.” “What?” Antony asked. Apparently he didn’t hear what she said. ‘Good. He doesn’t need to know.’

Shankaree walked fast and went back inside the house. Bhanu was still weeping. Shakaree sat near her and told her softly “Auntie, I’m going to the police station now. I’ll make sure nothing happens to him.” Hope flashed in Bhanu’s eyes and she stopped her weeping for a minute. Shankaree continued, “Don’t tell anyone that. Just tell them I just came to check up on you and that I was of no help since I have no knowledge about narcotics.” Bhanu was puzzled. Shankaree didn’t stop talking, she had major things to do after that. “Don’t talk to any news people.” She said. “News people will be here?” Bhanu was crying again.

“Maybe. So just don’t talk to anyone, especially those you don’t know or haven’t met before, okay?” Shankaree instructed Bhanu and Bhanu nodded. “Don’t worry, Auntie. I’ll bring Chanda uncle back.” She said and walked out of the house. ‘Please let me get him back.’ She was an atheist, so she didn’t know who to pray to though. She kept a brisk pace so that others wouldn’t feel she was walking with a purpose. She walked out slowly like a person who’s leaving with no particular destination. She smiled at the people she knew but didn’t bother to speak to them. She took her scooter and slowly left the area. As soon as she was out of visibility of those in the area, she sped on her scooter towards Central Police Station.

“Narcotics, my foot.” She said under her breath while riding her scooter. In her career she had seen many cases where innocent persons were framed by policemen. Irrespective of the branches they were, Shankaree had a general disdain towards the police. The general ones, special crimes, narcotics, excise and even traffic – she didn’t see eye to eye with any kind of police person. Her hatred for police people misusing the law was one of the reasons she became a lawyer. Now, she was more furious than usual about such an act by them.

‘Chanda uncle wouldn’t do such a thing. Would he? No, he wouldn’t. He needed someone who would trust him and someone he could trust.’ She put her thoughts to rest and focused on reaching the station as fast as she could.

The District Headquarters of the Anti-Narcotics Police division was not so far away. Shankaree walked through the doors of a huge building and spoke to the man in the front office and asked where the arresting officer was. She was asked to add her name and contact number to the register. She entered the huge hall filled with police officers and their tables. A cabin was in the corner of the hall with a board which said ‘Kunal Raval, Inspector’.

‘Such a typical police station.’ She thought. Inspector Raval was the one she needed to talk to. He was the one who headed the so-called raid on Chanda’s shop. Of course, she knew she had to talk to a constable first, then he would direct her to a senior constable – she'd have to say what she was there for – who would send her to the Assistant Inspector who would hear her plea and then give her the permission to see the inspector. This wasn’t her first time in a police station. She knew the way things worked. She talked to all these people, she asked the matter, they looked her up and down, gave her a look of disgust and sent her to the next man. There were two reasons for this. First she was a lawyer, that too, dressed in black and white. Secondly, her gender. Samraju state laws gave enough liberty and equality to women, but the general attitude needed work.

She knocked on the cabin’s door. The cabin was covered from all sides, which made it look like an actual room. “Come in,” a voice said. She entered the cabin and greeted the inspector. “Hello Sir,” she said.

“Hello, please sit down” he said. He said in a polite manner and smiled at her. ‘Polite police people? Weird.’ She thought. She had seen very few police officers – men, women and every other gender – in her whole life.

“You are here for Chanda’s issue right?” he asked. “Yes,” She said and sat down confidently. She put her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “Sir, I want to know why you arrested Mr. Chanda on false charges?”

“Excuse me?” he said. He even spoke that softly. ‘Nice to meet a soft, temperamental police officer,’ she thought.

Shankaree was determined to use her lawyer skills and intimidate the officers into releasing Chanda uncle without pressing any charges. “You heard me. Everyone knows it’s a false case. I just want to know who fabricated it and why.”

Inspector Kunal narrowed his eyes but he still had a slight smile. He leaned forward on his chair and said “Ma’am, I don’t know what made you think this is a false charge, but we acted upon solid information. And we found 500 packets of Pan Masala. I don’t think I need to tell a lawyer how serious this charge is.”

“Oh, I know how serious it is. Why do you think I barged in here, sir?” she confidently said.

“Okay.” He paused for a second. “We will produce him in front of the magistrate tomorrow morning. Since it's an unbailable offense, I can’t let him go now, nor will the magistrate.” He continued.

“You think I’m here for bail?” Shankaree smirked at him. Kunal Raval crooked his eyebrows

“Why are you here then?” he asked.

“You arrested him about 3 hours ago. Did you investigate anything else related to this? Where did he get it from? Or how long has he been selling this? Hmm?” she leaned back.

“Of course, we are investigating. Its in process.” He said.

“Process of what exactly? Have you any responsibility after arresting a street vendor?” she raised her voice. Kunal lowered his eyes for a second and Shankaree felt that something about this case was making Inspector Kunal unhappy. He looked at her and said,

“This is police business and it takes time.” His voice was low compared to hers this time. Shankaree understood the man in front of her had no power here. She took a breath and softly, in a low voice, asked Kunal. “Whom should I talk to speed things up?”

She leaned in further and almost whispered, “Sir, I think you are equally disturbed by this. If you have any conscience as a dutiful police officer, please help. Not me, help that poor man.”

Kunal blinked his eyes a few times, it was possible he was deciding whether to do something or not. “Talk to our chief. He’s upstairs in his office. Deputy Commissioner, he’s the new head of Anti-Narcotics. He’s here in the office, it’s better you talk to him. I’ll call him from here.”

Shankaree smiled and said “Thank you. Also, please let me meet Mr. Chanda for a minute. I need to tell him I’m here.”

“Alright” Kunal said.

She stood up and left the cabin and found the junior inspector and the constables trying to listen in to their conversation from outside. Even though they were doing something cheap, they had the audacity to smirk at her.

Something clicked in Shankaree’s mind. ‘There is something more to this.’

She was taken to the jail cell where they kept Chanda uncle. He was sitting right beside the bars, all crying out and scared for his life. His face had total relief when he saw her. He stood up quickly.

“Oh my God, you’re here.” He said with tears in his eyes.

“Uncle, don’t worry, I’ll get you out, okay?” she said in a low voice. She wanted to keep the conversation between them private.

“I didn’t do anything. I don’t know why this is happening to me.” Chanda said and started crying once again.

‘You don’t have to do any wrong for others to wrong you. It’s the sad condition of the world’, she thought to herself.

“I know. I know you’re innocent. I’ll be back okay.” She said and handed him a hand kerchief she kept in her pocket for him. He took it from her and wiped his tears with it.

The next thing she needed to do was to convince a grumpy old DC to investigate further and let out the truth.

She went to the reception again and requested the receptionist to meet with the DC. He was reluctant at first. He looked at her like the usual ‘I have permission, you must let me in’ liars. Right at that moment, he received a call. He attended the call and it was just “Sir” and “Yes Sir” several times. The receptionist looked up at her. He was doubtful before, but the call but whoever called, directed him to send Shankaree into DC’s office.