Chirping
birds announced sunrise. The milkman whistled an old Punjabi song as he made
his deliveries round Firozpur, a town of expensive properties occupied by
Police officers, lawyers and accountants.
Word
of the escape had flown directly over to the police headquarters via the
milkman. Chief Commissioner Harbachan Singh dropped his powdered milk in shock
when he heard that the only five female prisoners in the whole of Punjab had broken out of Jalandhar Jail. He wasn’t too
sure what was worse; the fact that these prisoners had escaped or that he
received this news by the interfering milkman who was very much amused by the
event. Harbachan Singh soon had this story confirmed by a phone call from his
department.
Harbachan
Singh was a jolly fellow, a bit on the chubby side. His wife was busy in the
kitchen cooking a traditional Punjabi breakfast; potato stuffed parrots, served
with plain yoghurt and sweet brinjal pickle. She was in her element cooking
away for the chubs of her life. He marched into the kitchen with the urge to
break something but couldn’t bring himself to damage the things he'd paid for,
so he sulked instead.
“Key
hoya? You seemed worried, what is wrong?” She wiped her hands clean with a tea
towel.
“The
bloody Doodwalah just told me that those five girls have escaped from Jalandhar
Jail last night.”
“Oh
no! Weren’t you filing for an appeal for them?”
“Yes
I was but now they’ve made matters worse by doing this, they assaulted the
watch guards and stole the guns from the station and a van!” He sat at the
breakfast table with hand on head. “I’ll phone my assistant, arrange an urgent
meeting with my top officers,” he buried his face in his hands.
“It
will be OK, you just do what you think is best,” she said giving her depressed
chubs a bit of loving.
After
digesting three king-sized aloo parontas, he remembered he had an urgent
meeting to arrange at Police headquarters in Ludhiana . The Chief jogged over to the
telephone, his wife hurried behind him and fastened his shirt together to
button up; he breathed in to help. He picked up his pocket size phone book and
flicked over to the ‘A’ page; he could never remember his assistant’s name, so
he always referred to him as ‘assistant’. Just as he was about to pick up the
receiver, the phone rang.
“Sat-Sri-akal!
Chief Commissioner Harbachan Singh espeaking!”
“Sat-sri-akal
sir, its Peter Singh… your assistant.”
“Haan
Ji, I was about to call him,” he was confused.
“No-
I am your assistant Peter Singh.”
“Oh
is that what they call you these days, I like it! Catchy.”
“That
has been my name for all my life.”
“Ok
yaar, I get the message, right now listen, there is an urgent matter,”
“Sir
I think I know. Doodwalah came round here 10 minutes ago, I’ve heard about the
prisoners escaping from Jalandhar Jail.”
He
closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and controlled his urge to swear at the
Doodwalah. Peter was set the task of phoning the deputy inspectors and
specialist officers of the Punjab force to
inform them about the urgent meeting at Ludhiana Police headquarters at 11 am.
That was if the Doodwalah didn’t get there first, the chances were high, he was
distributing this news at the speed of light.
Deputy
inspector Ikbal Singh of the Jalandhar branch arrived at 11 am on the dot. His
punctuality gave a new meaning to Indian timing. Many were convinced that he
was a descendant of Adolph Hitler: he was known for abusing his power and
authority. He thrived on the pain and suffering of others. His sidekick,
officer Roshan sat by his side and showered him with false compliments,’ till
he was told to 'shut up'.
A
short while later a few more inspectors from different stations made their
attendance. Ikbal greeted his distant colleagues in a pretentious manner that
most of them were aware of, so they chose to ignore him. Deputy Inspectors,
Dalip and Aman rushed into the room hoping that the Chief Commissioner hadn’t
arrived before them. Not that it mattered even if they were late, Dalip and
Aman were the Chiefs pets. It was one of the many reasons behind Ikbal’s hatred
towards the young Deputy Inspectors who were gaining rapid success within the
force.
Dalip
sat down with a sigh of relief, Aman tucked in his shirt and took a seat next
to Dalip not realizing that they were facing Ikbal. Aman flinched when he
caught sight of his angry face.
“Oh
Ikbal it’s you, I thought it was some kind of barbaric statue, you know the
whole cave man look…”
“Aman,”
said Dalip in a disapproving tone.
“I
was joking yaar.”
Dalip
greeted everyone round the table, he even made an effort with Ikbal and his
sidekick knowing too well that only a cold reception would be returned. Dalip
and Aman joined the force at the same time and had teamed up on a number of
cases and achieved great results. It had been a couple of years since they’d
worked together on a case, they were quite confident that the Chief would hand
this one over to them. So whilst they jested amongst themselves, Hitler was
getting paranoid. After some time of watching his rivals laughing away, he
slammed both his hands on the table and forced himself off his chair.
“You
think this is a bloody joke! If you’re not serious about this you can leave!”
“Who
died and made you chief?” Aman tried to hide his anger.
Ikbal
was about to dive over the desk to ring his neck but Roshan managed to pull him
back and take him to the far side of the room to calm down. Aman huffed a
little laughter and sat back in his chair.
“Do
you know what they were in for?” asked Dalip.
“Honestly?
Not sure, but I do know a man who does,” Aman pointed at Ikbal.
Dalip
turned to Aman and asked, “How?”
“He
was the head of Jalandhar Jail,” Aman smirked.
“You’ve
got to be joking,” Dalip tried to figure out the reason behind Ikbal’s odd
confidence.
As
the clock struck 12, the Chief Commissioner burst through the doors of the
conference room. He was so loud that the officers jumped out of their skins, a
couple were about to draw out their guns. In followed his harassed assistant
Peter Singh, a relatively little man, carrying a stack of yellow files, he
could just about see where he was going. The early arrivals stood up and
saluted their senior, who in return gave a salute and a big grin and signaled
his men to be seated.
“Sat-sri-akal
officers! Good to see that everyone is punctual, hope you were not waiting long
and if you were I really could not give two hoots because I am the daddy of
this joint! So without further- a- do let’s begin.” Harbachan thought he was trendy,
hip and happening, shame that nobody else shared this thought.
Peter
Singh distributed files of the escaped prisoners as if he was dealing cards for
a poker game. Ikbal opened the file in front of him, he sneered whilst flicking
through the pages.
“Sir
I have this background information already, after all, I was the one to lock up
these criminals.”
“And
you did a damn good job of freeing them too, Inspector Ikbal Singh!” Chief
controlled his urge of throttling the bad mannered officer.
The
other officers hid their amusement, a couple couldn’t resist sniggering, Ikbal
had no choice but to bite his tongue. Peter Singh was shuffling round in the
background. He was busy setting up the image projector behind the
Commissioners’ head, Peter struggled with the 50 inch screen. He managed to
complete the set up and handed over a mini remote control to his boss. The
curtains were drawn shut, Peter flicked on the projector, chairs shuffled round
for a better view of the screen. Chief Commissioner stood with his back to the
screen, smiling away as if he was about to present his wedding photographs.
“Right
officers, I will show you photographs of our criminals who escaped at 11pm last
night, they assaulted the two guards on watch and locked them up in the cell.
The guards were let out this morning and have resigned.” He took a gulp of
water and continued. “I’ll give you a brief on these criminals. More details
are available in the yellow files given to you by my main man Peter Singh!” He
cheered whilst giving Peter two thumbs up and began with the first click of the
remote to expose the first picture.
“This
is Gulab! She refused to pay her rent for 12 months and allegedly forgot to pay
her medical bill at Naresh Clinic. She was to compensate 12 months in prison as
she could not pay off her debts.”
Aman
and Dalip exchanged concerned looks and thought of how petty the crime was in
comparison to the ones they were used to dealing with. Their thoughts were
disturbed by the sound of the second CLICK.
“This
is Preeti! She stole a police motorbike and tormented the police officer, by
making him chase her for miles.”
Dalip
leant towards Aman and whispered “Really? Is this what they call dangerous criminals?
Did I miss something?”
The
Chief paused for a moment and gave Dalip a stern look as a warning, Dalip
returned a sheepish look. The Chief continued with the third CLICK.
“Here
we have Bilo! She ran away on the day of her wedding, she went to Singhsbury's
car park where she attempted to steal a Maruti 2000, in the process, she
damaged four other cars and assaulted a fellow police officer, no names
mentioned,” he smiled at Roshan.
Roshan
lowered his head in shame and wished for the floor to part in two and swallow
him up. Dalip on the other hand was drowning in the image on the screen, which
he found so captivating that he’d almost forgot what he was there for. Aman
gave Dalip a discreet nudge.
“You’ll
fall into the picture if you keep on staring like that.”
“I
think I already have,” sighed Dalip
It
was time for the fourth CLICK. “Here we have Jags! This one is very
aggressive.” He gave his men a serious look. “She physically abused her husband
so severely that he was put in a coma. He regained consciousness 4 weeks later,
but couldn’t testify or provide a statement as he has lost his memory.”
The
officers’ jaws almost smacked the floor, their image of the good Punjabi woman
was becoming worryingly fierce. They were aware that Punjabi women were known
to be feisty behind closed doors. But this kind of extreme abuse, was unheard
of. Thoughts broke at the sound of the final CLICK, all attention was on the
last criminal.
“Right!
Here we have the ring leader, Rani. She was found guilty of murder. She set her
mother in law on fire and watched her burn to ashes, she had no remorse for
what she had done, which makes her extremely dangerous,” Harbachan looked at
the screen and paused for a moment, somehow his words didn’t seem to be
convincing. From the few moments he had come across this particular prisoner,
he knew that something bad had happened to this young girl. He knew that all
the girls had their reasons and this is what he was trying to discover prior to
this morning.
Chief
Commissioner snapped out of his confusion and sat down. He informed his
officers that he had arranged wanted posters to be plastered everywhere in Punjab . There was a cash reward of 5 million rupees for
capturing all five prisoners.
“I
want these girls alive! As for now, I’m handing this case over to my trusted
DI’s, Dalip, Aman and Ikbal…” He looked at the faces in the room. “The
departments’ head is resting on a serious line here- we cannot allow this to
leak out of Punjab . Ending on that note… Who’s
up for Curry Hut, it’s my treat!”
The
Chief shot out of the room at the speed of a bullet, it was surprising to see
him move so fast. He was closely followed by his assistant and nine other
officers. Dalip, Aman and Ikbal remained seated. Aman opened the curtains
whilst Dalip spoke about a plan of action.
“This
is bloody ridiculous! What made him think I would work with you loafers!” Ikbal
was furious.
“Ikbal,
we are on the same team here, what great mountain will crumble if we work
together? Come on, we have a lot of work to do,” Dalip opened up one of the
five files.
Ikbal
laughed out loud, walked over to Dalip, grabbed hold of his collar, and dragged
him off his chair, he was a large man who took advantage of Dalip’s politeness,
which was to remain calm before his elders.
“Bacha,
listen to me carefully, there is no way in hell I’m working with you!” He
released his collar and stormed out of the room slamming the door behind.
Dalip
and Aman stayed in the boardroom and read through the files. Something wasn’t
adding up in these statements, there was a huge difference between the actual
events and the Police reports. Dalip finished reading them, Aman sat on the
desk and went through one in detail.
“These
don’t make any sense,” Dalip got up from his chair.
“I
bet this is only 50 % of what happened,” Aman placed the file on the desk.
“We
should head over to Jalandhar Jail.”
“We
might run into Hitler Singh.”
Dalip
stood up. “Nope, he won’t go there today.”
“How
can you be so sure?” Aman put on his sunglasses.
“That
guy would never give up a free lunch at Curry hut,” Dalip rolled up his sleeves
and loosened his tie.
“And
we're the lucky ones that get to go to Jalandhar in search of five dangerous,
hot totties!”
“I’ll
drive the first half of the journey,” Dalip gathered the files and got ready to
hit the road.
The
dedicated inspectors spent a few hours driving along dusty, incomplete roads.
They dodged cows, goats and people who didn’t believe in giving way and didn’t
seem bothered that they were obstructing a police vehicle. They reached
Jalandhar Jail just before sunset. Aman was hot, tired and couldn’t stop
himself from complaining about the journey. Dalip ignored the whining and
examined the scene of the crime. Aman downed a bottle of mineral water
and followed Dalip into the building.
An
awful stench lingered round the Jail, Aman covered his nose and mouth with a
handkerchief. Dalip entered the prison cell coughing from inhaling the horrid
odor that lurked round the entire building. Aman inspected the office area
opposite the cell; he picked up a large piece of glass from a smashed
bottle.
“Look
at this cheap stuff, I can’t believe that some people would actually drink
this… hold on, why were the officers drinking on duty?”
“Aman,
watch what you touch, fingerprints need to be matched.”
“Shouldn’t
that have been done when they got the guards out?” He gently placed down the
bottle and made his way into the cell.
“The
alarm was raised this morning by the guards who were going to do the day shift,
so forensics should be on their way soon. We should get out before they get
here.”
The
condition of the cell was despicable; the ceiling was leaking and insects had
made homes almost everywhere. Aman screamed when he thought he saw a rat
scatter by, Dalip gave him a look of disapproval. He could barely stay in the
cell for 9 seconds and the girls had to live in this grime for 9 months, he
couldn’t blame them for running away. Dalip spotted something peeping out from
under one of the mattresses; he crouched down and pulled out a pocket notebook.
“Take
a look at this,” he flicked through the pages.
“And
what were you saying about finger prints?”
“Sorry,
I forgot that they may have used a paperback note book to slap around two
officers and then hid this dangerous weapon under this mattress… hello!”
“Yea
unlock your jaw, I’d like my head back.” Aman tripped over a pile rope, paper
and telephone cables.
“Interesting,”
Dalip read through a page in the notebook
“Ok
what’s your latest discovery Sherlock Singh? Is that a diary?” Aman leant by
the entrance of the cell.
“No
not exactly, it’s more drawings and plans this jail, notes on the guards and
plenty of naught and crosses games, oh and hangman. I wonder if this belongs to
Bilo?”
Aman
leaned over to have a look, “We should hand this over the Chief, it’s clear
that the guards were abusing their authority here. What’s next? Questioning the
guards?”
“No,
Ikbal is going to attack them first- anyway it’s going to be pointless talking
to them, we need to trace the girls’ steps from here.”
Dalip
wondered if the girls had crossed the deserted, 25 acre field, it was the
easiest route out of the prison grounds. Both inspectors jumped back in the
Jeep, whilst Aman reversed the Jeep, Dalip noticed the back wooden exterior
gates had been demolished.
