It
was surprising to many in the neighborhood. It was the first of its kind,
especially in the Babu Bagan Lane. The neighbors had gathered all around.
Everyone kept looking at the object of the surprise. Anil Dutta was a resident of Babu- Bagan-
lane for the last one month. He had shifted from the north to Dhakuria as his
office was located nearby. But little did he ever wonder that he would have to
go through this day. The entire external pipeline of his house had disappeared
overnight. It was a house without external pipeline connection which was
earlier attached to the backside wall. It had baffled the neighbor to no ends
as they had never seen such a situation where pipelines to a house disappeared
overnight.
The
irony about the disappearance was the fact that when asked about the pipeline,
people had hardly noticed it in the first place.
“Who
would observe a pipe or a pipeline structure?” was the reply given by locals
who often walked by the house.
So,
the question in the first place was “whether there was a pipeline in the first
place?”
Anil
Dutta seemed amused by the question not because of its presence but rather due
to its logic.
“How
can there be a house without any external pipeline which would take the
unwanted water outside to the drain below?”
Ritwick
wasn’t amused. For him anything was possible anywhere as long as humans are
existing on the planet. So, the first question was about the existence of a
pipeline. The drain below the house was
dry when investigated by Ritwick and Deep Das.
“If
there was a pipeline where did the water go?” asked a bemused Deep Das.
“Does
that man even live there?” Deep Das looked confused asking the question.
Anil
Dutta’s house was located at the start of Babu- Bagan- lane. The one storey
house was previously occupied by many tenants over the years and also a
bachelor who had left abruptly without informing the neighborhood.
Little
did anyone know about that bachelor except the fact that his name was Kanak Ray
and Ritwick had inquired about him, the house and its owner. The owner lived
far away in the north of India and would rent the house through a local agent.
The
Disappearance of the pipes seemed to be a hyped matter to Ritwick. It could be
that a local thief would have simply cut the pipes and ran away. But to Ritwick
it seemed something else, something planned in advance.
He
did a recce of the house and the area surrounding the house. On a lazy Sunday
afternoon Ritwick and Deep Das took a walk down the backyard of the house. They
tried to look for clues which would help them clear their confusion. It was on
that lazy afternoon that Ritwick observed something unusual. Two tiny little
items which seemed to shine beyond normal limits.
“This
is a diamond!” exclaimed the jeweler who checked the two tiny items. Ritwick
and Deep Das were perplexed, shocked and full of anxiety. Deep Das had never
seen a diamond before and hardly did he realize that diamonds looked as they
did in those hands.
Though
no one had complained about the theft of the pipeline, it seemed very unusual
for Ritwick that Anil Dutta wasn’t much interested in the taking the matter
further. Ritwick’s grandfather had known the real estate agent who would give
his services in and around the Dhakuria locality.
“Do
you know Anil Dutta personally or did he connect with you through some
acquaintances?”
The
agent seemed jovial and unaware of the purpose of Ritwick’s inquiry. He cared
the least.
“Anil
da had approached me saying that he had come to know of me through one of his
friends”
“Did
you ask him about that friend?”
“Why
should I as long as I am getting business?” replied the agent in a more jovial
tone.
“Yes,
but one thing I remember that he himself asked me about that address in which
he is currently residing, as if he already had made his mind to stay there. It
seemed odd but I didn’t care.”
Ritwick
introspected the information obtained from the agent.
“What
about the previous tenant, Kanak Ray?” asked Deep Das.
“I
personally didn’t meet Kanak Ray as I directly deal with owners but I had heard
he had disappeared one fine day and one more information the owners had given
me. That man Kanak and some his friends had got involved in some crime at that
time and hence the owners had warned him to leave the house after paying the
rent but he disappeared.”
In
the by lanes of Mukherjee lane, there
was an old scrap dealer who had a collection of clippings of the newspapers of
the last twenty five years. Ritwick and Deep Das didn’t waste much time and
checked the clippings of the year 1986.
It
was Deep Das who caught the news article and also picture on that article. Both
Ritwick and Deep Das were stunned. Humans do have a short memory. The news
article dealt with a news about a diamond robbery at a wealthy person’s house
which was located at Jodhpur Park locality, some ten minutes from Dhakuria bus
stop. The image of person in the news was that of Kanak Ray. The news article
stated that when Kanak Ray was arrested, they couldn’t recover the diamonds and
had to let Kanak Ray get off. After that Kanak Ray disappeared from the city
not to be seen again.
Ritwick
and Deep Das couldn’t control their anxiety. They didn’t waste time and went to
Ritwick’s grandfather who in turn contacted the local police head.
It
was the evening of twenty second December 1998, three days to Christmas. While
the city was getting ready for Christmas that evening, there was a raid at Anil
Dutta’s house. Anil Dutta was arrested.
Anil
Dutta was the same Kanak Ray who had disguised himself and got into the city.
Ten years ago, he had hidden the Diamonds at a secret spot on the side of the
pipe and closed the lid. The spot was created in such a way that it wouldn’t be
impacted by the flow of water.
That
night, he had got his diamonds from the same spot but he was seen by one of the
locals who had been standing at a first storey balcony of the nearby building.
As it was dark the native couldn’t see the face. After mid night, Kanak Ray again walked back
into the backyard and uprooted all the pipes and made a false story of his
pipes getting robbed.
“How
did you know that something was wrong?” asked Deep Das.
“The
witness who had seen Kanak or Anil Dutta was none other than me dear but I
didn’t see the face and neither could see the diamonds. Next morning when Anil
Dutta broke the theft story, I felt something was surely wrong.”
“But
why did he wait ten years?”
“Because
if you remember, that house was occupied by other tenants during that period.
When he came to know that it was free, he contacted the agent and got the
deal.”
Deep Das looked at Ritwick and said, “God
knows when will I also solve a case on my own.”
