Chapter 1
Arjit had recently moved to the new city. He is newly employed in a software firm. It took about two weeks to adjust to the new city and workplace.
Hectic work schedule kept him busy from Monday to Friday. He felt lonely during weekends and would spend time cooking, watching tv, household work, and going to the parks in the evening.
After a month, on a particular Sunday, while he was sitting on a table drinking tea and watching the news on the laptop, he felt a movement by the window. He thought it to be leaves from the tree waving in the wind and ignored.
The next week, he felt a similar movement. He immediately went to the window and checked. He could see two men running quickly in the street below. Arjit didn’t give it much thought and went to do his household chores. During his way back to home from usual walk to the park, he happened to see two shoes hanging on the branch of the tree. He kept wondering what it meant. As soon as he reached home, he googled and found that it’s a superstitious belief that the shoes are being hanged in the branches if there is a recent death in the locality or it can be a signal that there are drug dealers around. Next day,he happened to see a few intoxicated people walking in the streets on the way from grocery shopping. As he was all alone, his mind kept on wandering about the illegal activities in the neighborhood.
One day, Arjit came home from the office in the afternoon. He tried unlocking the main door of the building. While he was searching for the keys, suddenly two men and a lady opened the main door. They were intoxicated and holding the door for him to come inside. Shocked about who let them all inside, he asked them to vacate the building politely as it is was a residential area.They left the place as quickly as possible.
Arjit got ready to go to the office the next day. When he opened the door, he saw a lady lying unconscious outside his door. He slammed the door shut and took a moment to breathe as he didn’t know whether the lady was dead or alive. He immediately called the police and the officers arrived in a few moments, took the lady away. Arjit thanked god that she was alive. He shuddered to think what would have happened if something had happened to the lady while lying outside his apartment.
Arjit and the neighbors collectively filed the police complaint regarding the nuisance by the two men and the lady. The police promised they would take action. After that, neither Arjit nor the neighbor’s faced any issues in society for the next few weeks.
Arjit was returning home at 2 am after a New year’s get-together. He could hear a lady shouting and crying loudly in the quiet street. He noticed it was the same lady. He felt sympathy towards the lady as she was alone at this hour and asked how he could help her. She asked him for water to quench her thirst. Arjit asked her to hold his laptop bag, opened his carrying flask, and gave her. The lady thanked him and went away.
There was a loud bang on his door early in the morning. He was still in his sleep, opened the door, and was shocked to see two policemen. He let them in. They searched thoroughly all over his place and found drugs from his laptop bag. He told them he had no idea what was happening but they put handcuffs on both his hands and took him to the police station.
On the way, Arjit pleaded with the policemen to let him free but they were like statues with no emotions on their faces. In the police station, he encountered the same lady who smiled slyly. Arjit understood what had happened. He has fallen into a trap as they wanted to take revenge on him for complaining about them. Arjit tried to say to the police that she was the culprit but no one paid heed to him.
As the police had proof since they found drugs at his house, he was not shown much mercy. He was sent to a very small prison cell which was also shared with two other hefty men.The inmates also made him do their share of work and ate his share of food too. At night, they beat him very badly. Though Arjit shouted for help,the police never listened to him as they were accustomed to seeing this on a daily basis inside the prison. He cried and prayed to God at night to somehow be out of the jail.
God seemed to have answered his prayers,a new Inspector was appointed as an In-charge for his case. The inspector sees the copy of an earlier complaint lodged by Arjit and the neighbors. He asked his officers to bring Arjit for interrogations. Arjit narrated the whole story from the time he entered the city to how he was trapped into this case, and pleads to the inspector to save him from the cruel fate.
Inspector sets about searching for the culprits everywhere in the city. On the third day of his frantic search, he finally catches the trio and takes them to the police station. He tells Arjit that they were the most wanted criminals and they would be punished. Arjit was finally set free and compensated for his troubles as well...
