Reading Time: 4 minutes
Justice Delivered
In the dilemma of his thoughts, Venkat, a police officer, wondered about the strangeness of justice. He is working on suicide case of an IT employee, Ravi. In the preliminary enquiry it is told that Ravi, a 32-year-old young man, works as manager in an IT company, has a good salary, no previous breakups, and delivered the best performances till date.
It seemed a strange case as there is no specific reason for the suicide. The only thing they found in the apartment was a ruffled paper in the dustbin saying, “to all the women, I am sorry”.
Somehow Venkat becomes intrigued with the case and decides to solve this mystery, if there is any. He asks for Ravi’s routine right from his gym to office to any parties he had attended in the past month and if possible, access to his emails and phone data.
Venkat observes two strange things. One being in the drafts, there is a resignation and another since 20 days another person has been staying very close to Ravi, almost shadowing him.
He thinks of getting details of him and as if his mind got read, he receives a phone call which says the person following Ravi is Shyam who is a new joined in the company and works in the team of Ravi. As Venkat is in quarantine, he asks for a video call with Shyam.
Conversation in the call:
Shyam: Morning sir, I am Shyam, newly joined in the team of Ravi.
Venkat: can you tell me any details regarding the suicide?? I found a strange note.
Shyam: Do you believe in Karma?? What you do to others is what that comes to you. Do good deeds, goodness will come; torture others you will get tortured.
Venkat: Can you elaborate??
Shyam: sir, I request you to obtain CCTV footage of Ravi for 2 months and observe his behavior pattern with the women in his team.
Venkat: I have obtained and watched and found nothing important; he was very jovial with everybody and from the time you came there were no such instances of Ravi.
Shyam: if you observe, you will find a strange feeling on the women’s faces when he was talking and in the name of joke, he used to touch them at inappropriate places. Right after he speaks with a woman, she would go away from that place to the cafeteria or loo. Please have a look at it.
Venkat: looks at footage keeping him on the call, and he sees exactly what Shyam said.
Shyam: Under the mask of being friendly, the lines he used to cross with women was something nobody could do and so that nobody gets offended he just plays a joke and laughs at it.
So, I wanted to show him how it feels when he gets the same treatment and became his shadow since then.
I started talking as I was interested in him and even after some time, tried to touch him inappropriately. It went so far that everybody in the office including HR got suspicious. HR had a session with Ravi just before 5 days of his death.
After the session, when I went to speak to him, he was very angry and scolded me. It was then that I told Ravi that Imagine what the ladies have been going through because of his behavior. They could not shout at anybody, could not share it with anyone, could not resign because of family concerns. The pain they felt knew no bounds.
Throughout the office, a rumor spread about both of us being together and he could not take it.
Sir, now you might be wondering why nobody brought this to his notice during the preliminary enquiry???
Venkat: yes, I am thinking the same.
Shyam: That says everything sir. See the footage once again and you will understand for yourself.
Venkat: Why are you telling me all this???
Shyam: Because I know you are a sensible officer and you have a daughter working in an IT company; she might also be suffering without saying anything. There is a chance that you can understand the gravity of the pain they understand.
Venkat: why have you decided to teach Ravi a lesson??
Shyam: because my sister was one of the victims and without properly analyzing the situation, our family made her resign and got her married. After she left, I read her diary and tears rolled down my eyes. The guilt made me do this.
Sir, before taking any action on me, I request you to speak to your daughter once.
Call was cut.
Venkat joins for dinner and in the middle of conversation, he asks his daughter, anjali, how is everything in the office.
Anjali: nothing papa.
Venkat asks for CCTV footage of the office where her daughter works and what he sees sends chills down his spine.
Venkat: Anjali, I want to tell you something. In any situation, remember one thing, I am always there for you. Be brave and fight for what you believe in. I am going to see that your manager gets his due. Be happy, darling.
That night, Venkat is thinking about the situation and he enters a dilemma whether what Shyam did was correct or wrong. He pictured Anjali in the situation and gave it a thought.
Actually, it was not Shyam who was the reason for the death of Ravi, but his own actions and the guilt of it came on to him in such a way that he could not take it.
Venkat closes the case as suicide out of depression.