PROLOGUE
“I am framed in this case, I AM INNOCENT!” he protested. “Did we ever tell you, you are innocent ?” she asked, taking the long baton in her hand making hand swings as if she was exercising the basic warmups she once learned in her training sessions. “I am in no way related to this case, I spilled the beans out to the public″ said the innocent journalist,hands tied and legs chained.
The room was dark except for a fluorescent bulb blinking twice in a second, the journalist’s eyes were covered to bring out his heart on to his mouth, a sudden hit of his buttoks the room echoed in his pain. His legs shivered, his eyes filled with water over his cheeks, “There you go, Mr. Journalist. I have just begun my interrogation” she grinded with a devilish smile on her face.
“I am longing to hear your laughter Journalist, that stress-relieving laughter you laugh after breaking EVERY SINGLE SCAM” she recalled with a blow of hit on the same spot. The room echoed with a sharp cry, She gestured to lower level officers to make all the arrangements for recorded interview interrogation.
As quick as the falling stars, the set-up was arranged with three camera’s recording the entire session. As he was struggling to sit on the chair, “Make yourself comfortable, the Sherlock Holmes of the state” she said with a touch of giggle.
She pushed a tab on to his end and commanded to play the video. His bare swollen hand touched the screen and slid to unlock while a video started to play on its own. It was a short clip of one minute from the interview he gave to a news Youtube channel, NewsPluse on an investigation of mysterious death of young woman.
“You should have been prosecuted the day you started speaking your nonsense theories sitting cosily, earning bucks as you mislead the public,” she said, pushing a bunch of paper towards the other end.
He moved up his cuffed hands, took up the papers laying in front of him as he tried to focus the lines blurred. It was a copy of the articles he had written on the gov’s involvement in the silver screen scam case - House Of Thieves & Two And A Half Cores the journalist had a sarcastic look on his face, he said in bold tone, as if he was sitting for another interview, “I know that this article of mine is the sole reason for my arrest and the case I am arrested in is just a eyewash”.
The college corruption case was one of the infamous talks of the town which the journalist broke. “Wasn’t the college collecting money from students without giving an receipt and the entire staffs are guilty of corruption, the management never really cared for the plight of the students, they just made sure they keep student’s mouth shut” the journalist laughed his infamous stress relieving laughter. The interrogating officer stayed calm without speaking a word. “You name the sources from whom you get the information” she said as she handed him over a glass of water.
“Which journalist shares the information of the sources he/she tends to lean upon ?” questioned the journalist. “This is the last time, I would ever ask politely Mr, you better say all you know else you will have hell in your life till the time you stay in this jail” she warned him of the consequences he has to face for his stub-born attitude on non-disclosure of information.
“All my sources are in some way affected by this society we live in, I am just an socialist who wishes to see the rational change in the society, I wouldn’t even name them even by slip of tongue no matter the duration of this interrogation” he said as if it was a statement of fact.
The journalist sat as still as a tomb, the stillness of the place made Sneha uneasy to get any word out of Shankar who seems to be as silent as the grave. She gestured to the officials to watch out for Shankar, as she moved out.
Sneha’s cabin was left ajar, a red gift box placed on the table. The frustration of not getting any word out of Shankar made her feel sick, as she traverse towards the table she noticed the red gift box.
She picked it up, examining it. It was a simple box, with no markings on it. She opened the box and found a single piece of paper inside. She unfolded the paper and read the message:
Get the confession out of Shankar or be prepared to get screwed.
Sneha felt her blood run cold. She took a deep breath and walked back to the interrogation room. She opened the door and saw Shankar sitting in the same chair, his hands still cuffed.
“I have a message for you,” she said. “If you don’t confess to your crimes, you’re going to regret it.“Shankar smiled, “I’m not afraid of you,” he said. “I have nothing to confess.” Sneha sighed. “Fine,” she said. “But don’t blame me for not warning you.” She turned and walked out of the room, leaving Shankar alone to his thoughts.
….
