The Art of Catching Criminal II

THE SURPRISE

Clik here for Part I

By now the time was around 10.15 am. I have been watching the cops, for more than half an hour now. Many people have passed though the road in front, some by two wheelers, some by car and some walking. As each one passed, I expected something to happen. But nothing happened. Isn’t this getting bored? Yes it was getting bored. So I decided to stop cop watching and got inside the house.

As I was going through the notes, I was having a look at the cop standing opposite my house every now and then. On one such occasion, I saw him getting excited by looking to his left along the road. I was also excited by seeing this. I opened the door and got out of the house. The cop standing outside was making a phone call. I went to the right side my house where the other cop was standing. To my surprise he was not there. ”Where is he?” I searched around. I heard noise from my neighbor’s house. At the same time the cop who was standing opposite my house rushed to the same house. I positioned myself to get a good view of what is happening there. I saw the missing cop there talking to somebody. I don’t know how he reached there. I can’t see properly to whom he is talking to. By now the other cop reached there. I was not able to hear properly what they were talking. The cops asked him something ‘about driving’. I guessed it might be the driver there.

Now I would like to give a brief description about my neighborhood there lived an old couple- Eby uncle and Sise aunty. They have two sons, all abroad. Uncle now works as a project engineer in some govt. institution. The point worth mentioning here is that he had a Maruthi Zen car and he had appointed a driver for it. The driver, with whom I haven’t got any opportunity to talk, has been there since more than one year.

The cops talked to him for fine minutes. There was no sign of anybody trying to escape or anything like that. So I was not sure whether the cops have got the man they been awaiting. Is this the person for whom they were waiting like commandos hidden in barracks? I guessed that they might be asking him something about the criminal they are looking. But my guess proved wrong as I saw one cop going out of the house and coming back in a police Jeep within a minute. Two or three policemen in uniform jumped out of the Jeep and came running towards the house. They caught hold of the man. Now I can see him well. Yes, it is the driver. Now uncle came out of the house. He talked to the sub inspector. By this time the ‘driver’ was in the Jeep. The sub inspector walked towards the Jeep. I heard Eby uncle saying “Avane upadravikkaruthu…Enthokkeyayulum ivide avan oru nalla manushyanayirunnu” (“Don’t hurt him….he was a good man here’).

Uncle was dressed to go to office. One policeman himself got an Auto Rickshaw for him. He got on to the Auto Rickshaw and left. I got back to the house and informed my Mom about the incident. There was long talk between Mom and Sise aunty about the incident. From which I got to know some shocking things. He was arrested for being involved in a murder case. The case was that he took part in a murder that took place on the National Highway 47 on 21 February 2007. Aunty said that he was on leave on that particular day. He was one among the eight accused of which six of them were already caught by the police.

It was around 11.00 am when I finished postmortem of the story. I haven’t had my breakfast yet. So I had my breakfast. I had steam cake (Puttu)for breakfast, not very inviting for me. But I had it as it has got some advantages. They are

1. Easy to make( I assume so as I get it frequently)

2. Not even a single drop of oil is used.

3. Vitamin C is not lost as it cooked in steam not in fire.

4. Suitable with various compliments such as Banana, Sugar, Papad etc.

5. Traditional food.

6. Tourist attraction.

7. Available in various shapes.

8. Can be made according to quantity required by filling the Puttukkutti(Steam mould) as required.

9. Energy efficient(I assume so as it need not get fried and takes only the energy required to boil half litre of water to make 400gm Puttu)

10. Fat free.

…………………………………………………………..Aj

The Art of Catching Criminals-Kerala Police Way

HUNT FOR THE UNKNOWN

This is not a comedy story making fun of the Kerala police that I intend to tell. It is an incident that took place; in fact this may be a golden feather on the cap of the cops.

Exactly on 20 June 2007 I woke up earlier than most of the days around 6.00 am. It was raining outside. I felt nice and cold in the bed. But not for too long. I felt guilty of wasting precious time yesterday night studying nothing as the mad timetable gave me one day time to prepare for the all important electronic circuits exam.(….its getting postponed to such an extent that we take vacations in between exams …). Also the remembrance of a spoiled signals & systems exam made me take the texts as soon as woke up. I have made plans of finishing one module before noon. Started studying the fattest guy of the season,the Sedra & Smith. Finding it too heavy to carry while walking (a method of learning when there is too much to...) I slipped onto a Photostat note. By this time my father had left to his office. Mom had finished the morning buzz and was resting in the bed as I had decided to take the breakfast later. It was around 8.30 am by now. The rain had stopped. And it was the turn of the trees(“Maram peyyumbol”).

The ambience around was such that, it was difficult to differentiate between footsteps and the tree drops. Some cats were making noise around the area. I guess it is mating time for them. There are around five or six cats around my house fed by many neighborhoods. The number of cats has increased recently hmmm…naughty cats. No surprise, they have even dared to mate in with me watching. Coming back to real time, I haven’t seen anything like that morning. But some were running around the bushes may be in quest of…..hmmm my mind…thinking too much. Realizing that cat watching may do no good for the circuits exam I turned back to the Photostats.

As I was reading, sitting near the closed window heard somebody talking from outside. The voice was rough. Are there any trespassers in my compound? Or is it somebody in the neighborhood? I sharpened my ears. There was only one voice. It was a male voice. I guessed it as a mobile conversation. I was not able to hear exactly what he was saying. The only snippet I understood was “veettokarodu parayano??” (Means “should the households be informed??”). I felt the voice too close to be from the neighborhood. Who dared to trespass my house??? The inquisitive in me woke up. I dared to go to that side of the house and find out. I opened the door silently. With slow steps a advanced to that side of the house. I folded my Lunky and stiffened in case of an attack. I extended my head around the corner. THERE….. There he stands…THE TRESPASSER…he was at least 6 feet high and looked heavy .He was well dressed. He had an umbrella in his hand. He spotted me and looked at me and I moved towards him. He grinned, I didn’t…. He advanced towards me. His left hand went into the left pocket of his trouser. As he held some thing towards me said “I am from Police….. no need to panic….”.I looked at the thing he showed me. It read “KERALA SANNAD POLICE”. It was his identity card. The rough was voice fell on my ears as I was reading," I am awaiting a person”. My heart beat rapidly…He looked at my face. I closed my mouth realizing that it had been open for sometime. Tried to smile. Don’t know whether I succeeded or not. However he succeeded as he took his previous position. I turned back and got inside the house. I thought who he could be waiting for….I noticed a man standing opposite my house on the other side of the road. He has been there for quite some time. Is he making some actions toward me?? No. He is communicating with policeman. I concluded that he was also a cop. I started watching him. He is making some phone calls.

‘Who is the man they are waiting for??’ Many answers came up in my mind.'May be waiting for somebody passing through this way’. Now I can’t study. I was expecting a chase by the police, more cops hidden in the streets. So I fixed my eyes on the cop who was standing opposite my house. Time passed...I thought of informing my mother about the cops but dropped the idea soon as she might compel me to stop cop watching and study………..

to be continued…………………………………….. Aj