Murder in Bollywood (16 page)

‘My name is Arif,' Sameer revealed sombrely.

‘I am Vishal,' Ishan said.

‘Tia,' Nyra whispered.

‘Simi.' Shanaya smiled weakly.

And finally, Kiki said, ‘Tiwari was Shobhit. Nikhil was Omi. I am Benny. And the seven of us became the best of friends, probably because we all arrived on the same day at the Green Manor orphanage, which was April the second 1994. But as a request, Inspector saheb, if you are going to ask us any questions, please refer to us by our adopted names, as the ones we were born with we left behind in the ashes of Green Manor all those years ago.'

Hoshiyar smiled and nodded in agreement to this request, then instructed Zagde to grab a pad and pen, in preparation for the questioning.

‘How old were all of you when you first met?' He began.

‘I was ten. Ishan was twelve. Sameer and Tiwari were both fourteen. Shanaya was eight, while Nyra was the youngest at seven, and Nikhil the oldest at sixteen,' Kiki revealed.

‘All right,' said Hoshiyar, acknowledging the answer; he then turned to Sameer and asked, ‘A little while ago you had referred to Green Manor as a godforsaken hellhole. What made you say that?'

Sameer did not reply. Instead, he threw a glance at his friends, who, with a subtle nod of their heads, urged him to speak. Sameer then reached for the glass of water lying in front of him and sipped from it ever so slowly, as if he suddenly felt the need to wet his throat. He then turned to the good inspector and revealed, ‘It was all because of Monty Singh.'

‘Who's this Monty Singh?' Hoshiyar asked.

‘He was the warden of Green Manor, a big, hefty sardar with a smiley face and a jolly disposition, who enjoyed sodomizing little boys. He was a former prison guard who had been removed from duty, because he was considered too brutal and violent. When he took charge of Green Manor, he brought to that place this brand of brutality, which he unleashed upon its inhabitants through sadistic punishments, violent beatings, and even sodomy and rape, the last two horrors reserved solely for beautiful little boys, for that particular kind was his weakness. Every new inmate of Green Manor was subjected to an initiation ceremony of sorts by Monty Singh, who would beat, terrorize and sodomize the new entrant to his heart's content, then move on to someone else. He said it was his way of instilling discipline and turning boys into men. Then one day, seven new inmates arrived at Green Manor and from the moment they came, they became the centre of Monty Singh's attention.' Sameer narrated with a nervous quiver in his voice, then paused to gather himself and spoke once more. ‘Ishan and Kiki were the most terrified when they came to Green Manor. They would miss their parents terribly and cry themselves to sleep night after night. This caught the attention of Monty Singh, who began to lead them into the orphanage's basement on the pretext of toughening them up, where he would rape and sodomize them. “You little chunnu-munnus will thank me for taking your class when you grow up into strong young men,” he would say. Shanaya, on the other hand, was spared the violence and brutality, because Monty Singh realized that she was a bright and resourceful kid, so he made her his eyes and ears within the orphanage, sort of like his own personal spy, who'd supply him with all the information regarding every other inmate. But he would, however, force her to watch all the terrible things he did to the other children in Green Manor's basement. Nyra was beautiful, delicate and easily frightened, hence Monty Singh considered her too special to be harmed physically, so he would terrorize her mentally by yelling and screaming and intimidating her with the threat of violence. This was enough to make her wet her pants, and Monty Singh enjoyed that very much. I was one of the lucky few, Inspector saheb, for I was left unharmed by that monster, as I was an entertainer, highly adept at dancing, singing, and imitating all the famous film stars. And since Monty Singh loved mimicry, I became his personal jester, his constant source of laughter and entertainment, so whenever he wished to be entertained, even if it was in the dead of night, yours truly would perform like a trained monkey on a rope, for that would keep me safe and miles away from harm. As far as Tiwari went, he would get kicked and punched regularly, all because he hero-worshipped Nikhil, who in no time had become a major thorn in Monty Singh's flesh, for he was the only one who would stand up to him with courage and aggression, qualities that would earn him violent beatings and long, uninterrupted stays in Green Manor's rat-infested solitary confinement, but Nikhil never backed down. Then, on the night of December the fifth, a little after one, Nikhil woke us up from our sleep and told us that Green Manor's east wing was on fire and we had only a couple of minutes to escape before the fire spread to our section of the orphanage as well. So we grabbed whatever belongings we could get our hands on and ran out of there, with Nikhil leading the way. We had just about made it out when we heard a huge explosion, and as we turned around, Green Manor had gone up in flames. The next thing we knew was that we were being blamed for setting the place on fire, so we panicked and ran,' Sameer concluded.

‘I'll be back in a minute,' Meeta said, leaving her office, visibly repulsed by Green Manor's legacy of sickness and evil, while the look on Zagde's face clearly revealed that if Monty Singh had been standing before him, he would have torn that demon limb from limb. Hoshiyar, on his part, was disgusted and enraged in equal measure, so much so that he had a mind to have one of the other officers conduct the questioning on his behalf. But then he remembered something a very wise man had said to him a long time ago, that an officer investigating a murder case is not just a policeman doing his job—he is, in fact, the voice of the victim and the victim's only chance of telling the world how he came to meet his end. And when the time comes, the dead must never be denied their say. So Hoshiyar put his personal feelings aside and got on with the job at hand.

‘Did you inform any of the other staff members at Green Manor about the abuse?' Hoshiyar resumed.

‘They knew what was going on, but chose to look the other way. They were all terrified of Monty Singh. But there was one person who tried to help us, although she didn't succeed. It was Dr Rushali Seth,' Sameer revealed.

‘Dr Rushali Seth, the child psychologist?' Hoshiyar exclaimed, surprised.

‘Yes. She was commissioned by the state health department to evaluate the mental well-being of the inmates of Green Manor. She was with us for a period of two weeks. In her report to the health department, she expressed her fear that Monty Singh was hurting the children in some way and that he should be removed and investigated upon immediately; but no action was taken. After Green Manor burnt down, we ran away from there and came to Mumbai, where we contacted Rushali ma'am and told her everything. Fortunately, she and Bimal sir believed that we had nothing to do with the fire and gave us shelter. In fact, Rushali ma'am even tried to find us good foster homes, but only Ishan was lucky enough to get adopted, while the six of us were sent to six different centres of her NGO, Bal Kalyan, in different parts of the country, because Rushali ma'am believed that it wouldn't be possible for anyone to connect us to Green Manor if we weren't together. But before we left, we promised each other that when the time came we would all return to Mumbai and look to make it big in whichever field we found an opening in and always help each other out,' Sameer said.

‘By now, it's pretty clear that the six of you, minus Nikhil, besides the doctor couple, were the eight special guests at that after-party card game at Billimoria House. What happened that night?' Hoshiyar asked.

‘It was the strangest thing, Inspector saheb. Everything was going perfectly fine, when all of a sudden Nikhil, who had had way too much to drink, got up from his chair and hollered that someone at this table has killed before and someone at this table will kill again. He said he knew the killer by name and face. Then he said something about a great betrayal that had taken place which needed to be avenged. After this, he just burst out laughing, and told everyone that what he had just said was the plot of his new film and he only wanted to see our reaction. No doubt that stunt of his did leave a bad taste in everybody's mouth and we went home shortly afterwards. But then again, it was Nikhil's old habit to do silly, insensitive things when drunk, because in that state, he couldn't control his tongue. Just ask Kiki. He'll tell you how many times Nikhil had called him completely sozzled, pretending to be Monty Singh, just for kicks, in spite of knowing fully well how badly traumatized that monster had left him. And poor Kiki! All he would do time and time again was break down and cry, threatening to kill Nikhil in some horrible way as he sobbed hysterically, with us rallying around him, trying to calm him down. Then the following day when Nikhil had sobered up, he would apologize profusely to Kiki, even shower him with expensive gifts and all would be forgiven. Then a couple of months later, Nikhil would get drunk and repeat his antics, and the drama would begin all over again,' Sameer revealed.

‘Is it true that the eight of you met again after Nikhil's and Mallika's death?' Hoshiyar asked.

‘Yes, we did. At my farmhouse in Lonavla,' Ishan replied this time.

‘We thought Nikhil's outburst at his card game happened purely because he was drunk, so we didn't take his words seriously. But after both he and Mallika turned up dead under mysterious circumstances, we couldn't ignore the possibility that they were murdered because of something that Nikhil knew and blurted out that night. So we decided to meet and discuss how to tackle the matter from there on. Initially, we suspected each other, since we were the only ones privy to his outburst. But then, we decided to put our suspicions aside and stick together come what may, which was a plan of action that upset Tiwari no end. He insisted that one of us was a murderer, who not only killed Nikhil and Mallika, but also burnt down Green Manor all those years ago. He claimed that it was possible Nikhil got to know who started that blaze, that's why both he and Mallika were silenced. After a point, Tiwari got so belligerent that Bimal sir and Rushali ma'am took him out into the living room balcony, where they spoke to him for a good ten minutes. We couldn't hear what they were saying, but from our position we could clearly see that it was a pretty animated conversation, after which the doctor couple came back inside, while Tiwari left the farmhouse in a huff. But that's understandable since he literally worshipped the ground Nikhil walked on,' Ishan said.

‘Why did the five of you disappear after Tiwari's murder?' Hoshiyar questioned.

Kiki raised his head and nervously replied, ‘It was because of a call I received three days ago. I had just about started having my lunch when the telephone rang, and as I answered it, I heard his voice. He told me that he was alive and it was he who had set Green Manor on fire because he hated all the children so much. He said that Nikhil got to know what he had done, so he killed him, as well as Mallika. Then he murdered Tiwari and some private detective, because they were trying to investigate him. And now, he was coming for the five of us. He said we would never be able to recognize him, because his appearance had changed completely. He said he was going to kill each and every one of the seven naughty children who gave him so much grief. It was Monty Singh, Inspector saheb. It was definitely Monty Singh. When I told the others, they unanimously agreed that we should disappear for a while, until we could come up with a solution to our problem. So we discreetly checked into a suburban five-star hotel. But when we got to know of the police raids on our property, we realized that you considered us suspects in all the murders, so we decided to come out with the ridiculous story of the man with the gold tooth, in the hope that the police will fall for it and offer us round-the-clock protection,' he revealed sheepishly.

‘And what about the doctor couple? Do you have any idea where they are?' Hoshiyar inquired.

‘No, not at all. We didn't even know they were missing,' Kiki said.

‘Hmm! Well, you can be rest assured about one thing. Monty Singh cannot call you, or hurt you in any way, because he perished in that fire all those years ago. This is a proven fact. The killer adopted the guise of Monty Singh to mislead our investigation, by introducing a bogus suspect. But in doing so, he has inadvertently revealed that he is desperate to stay one step ahead of us, meaning we are getting close.' Hoshiyar smiled, then quickly added, ‘Tell me, what kind of people were Nikhil and Mallika?'

‘They were as different as chalk and cheese, Inspector saheb,' Sameer replied. ‘To put it simply, Nikhil wasn't everyone's cup of tea. He was brilliant, but difficult and highly temperamental. But his most peculiar trait was his intense hatred for any action that fell within his definition of disloyalty, because as far as Nikhil was concerned, loyalty was everything. Disloyalty was death. Just like how a jealous, possessive child hates sharing his toys, Nikhil hated sharing his closest friends and loved ones. During the eight months we spent at Green Manor, Nikhil didn't like us being friends with the other children. He wanted us all to himself. Even when we started our careers, Nikhil hated the idea of us working with other film-makers, and when we did, he distanced himself from us professionally, which is evident from the fact that in ten years, he worked with us only twice. But if we had allowed him to have his way all those years ago, he would have cut us off from everyone and monopolized us completely. I mean, take a look at Tiwari's case. That guy could have had some of the biggest names in show business on his client list. In fact, in those ten years, he could have turned film producer. But he remained loyal to Nikhil all throughout and stuck by him, and Nikhil never let him grow beyond a secretary,' Sameer said.

‘And what about Mallika?' Hoshiyar asked.