SILENCE OF NEW MARKET CRIME THAT SHOOK THE POLICE DEPARTMENT IN THE 1970'S, NOIR THAT UNVEILS IN THE PRESENT

DEBO

Copyright © Debo All Rights Reserved. ISBN 978-1-63886-369-4 This book has been published with all efforts taken to make the material error-free after the consent of the author. However, the author and the publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. While every effort has been made to avoid any mistake or omission, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that neither the author nor the publishers or printers would be liable in any manner to any person by reason of any mistake or omission in this publication or for any action taken or omitted to be taken or advice rendered or accepted on the basis of this work. For any defect in printing or binding the publishers will be liable only to replace the defective copy by another copy of this work then available.

to nobody!

Contents Acknowledgements

vii

Preface

ix

1. You Better Keep It As It Is

1

2. Vikram’s Dilemma

5

3. Internal Affairs

10

4. Brotherhood

16

5. To Catch A Big Fish

22

6. God Arrives

29

7. Among Humans

36

8. Unusual Time

43

9. New Market

53

10. Unfortunate Gain

63

11. Missing Link

73

12. Unravelled

82

13. Collateral Damage

94

14. To Bell The Cat

103

15. Lucky Bastard

113

16. Cat And Mouse

125

17. Farewell

136

18. The New Awe

165

About The Author

185

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Acknowledgements Author thanks to Debamrita Ghosh for proofreading. Special thanks to Suvajit Das and Pameli for awesome sketches. Special Ref: Calcutta Police Gazette: 1967-1975.

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Preface The idea of the ‘Liberation’ trilogy emerged in the process where the undying desire of storytelling in terms of the montage of images or motion pictures being halted by lack of resource to make a feature film or two and the author’s financial struggle for existence. Generally first comes the story as a literary work then it gets translated to the screen, but in this case, the whole chain of events in the story has been visualized as a film and then when it could not end up in front of the camera, it was written down as a novel to keep it documented. This is probably the first novel where visualization has a larger impact than the literary description such as it’s written in an utmost minimalistic way where readers are not fed with unnecessary description. Readers are encouraged to see the unfolding events rather than digesting dry pages. Liberation series is based on three simplified phases of life i.e. Despondence, Seeking, Enlightenment (if there’s any). ‘Silence of New Market’ being the first novel of the Liberation trilogy represents the despondence part. The narrator of the story, Vikram beholds the whole of events in flashback, while he’s standing on verge of the end of a century. This story starts in the ’70s and spans to the inception of the 21st century. (In this way, the Seeking part I.e. the next part of this series will start at the time of the ’90s and will cover the first two decades of the 21st century and so on.) Vikram as a narrator can only tell whatever he heard, experienced, felt or saw during the time frame of the story, so this novel may seem to have an anticlimactic ending as the narrator can’t tell anything beyond his perception. The cheap trap of delivering epic or climactic conclusion is avoided, as there is no conclusion unless you want to conclude forcefully. Whereas the chain of events goes on and on, however feeble it may become. So next part of this series will draw references from this novel, though it will be an independent story altogether of an individual. In reality, things don’t unfold sequentially, it unfolds randomly,

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PREFACE

and simultaneously. Our thought and action (as a pool of human thought-action) don’t manifest sequentially as we read in books or see in films. This has been kept in mind while writing this novel, such as during a conversation narrator may think something totally unrelated or highly related to the current conversation, that also been considered as worth reading for the readers. Anything such as flashback, random thoughts or simultaneous events taking place on the other location has been shown in [italics]. This novel doesn’t only tell a story of a policeman, an ex-convict or a person in between but also it subtly tells about real-life references of our recent past. As the author has been witnessing the everchanging facet of a city and its people, a whole lot of character are taken directly from the real world out there. Readers will relate that while reading.

x

"One ill, One old, One corpse"

xi

CHAPTER I

You Better Keep It As It Is

THIS CITY had many iconic places; some of them were dead, some of them were on the verge of dying, but New Market had been enduring in its own way. It had a gravitas that kept on attracting people from all corners of the city. It always kept its head up in terms of serious footfalls throughout the year. No one could compare New Market with the other so-called iconic places of the city, as they would say, “New Market never sleeps.” It had been bustling since the British era, and they would also say anything about whatever you could get there. So it was not just a market or the array of shops; it was something more, like a living being, and shops, hawkers, shoppers, all were parasites on its body. It suddenly started appearing in the news when the Ministry of Urban Development had sanctioned a portion of New Market

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SILENCE OF NEW MARKET

that was famously known as “Hoggs’ Market” to be demolished, and on that site, multi-storey commercial-cum-residential complexes were to be erected. No sooner had the news come out, than many shopkeepers started openly showing their unwillingness to move out from that place. Many assumed that political parties were fuelling their agitation as they also wanted to gain something out of this situation. Many said that the ruling party had been bribed handsomely by the Marriott group who actually undertook the project. Though some of the licensed shopkeepers got the assurance that they would get proper compensation or rehabilitation in the newly-made complex, they were really adamant to not move out. For them, this place had a charm that would attract tourists and floating customers; if one would ever try to change the facet of New Market the pervading charm would go away. It was not only about their livelihood or the business, as a matter of the fact, but it was about the passion and emotional attachment they used to have with the place. So it was quite evident that some of them had started cursing Arne Sorensen, who was the CEO of Marriott Group. And the media started collecting stories from this newly developed situation. Things had been escalated to such heights, that the then police commissioner Mr Jayanta Panda would often visit the place to make shopkeepers and the agitators understand the weightiness of the situation, and every meeting would end with a note that it would be all okay, at the end they (shopkeepers) would be benefited if they could stay patient till the completion of the project. As the demolition of the old structure began, shopkeepers started realising it was better to move out, some of them had already moved out as they had got notice six months before. They all had moved out unwillingly, or some of them had done so with a big hope that they would be benefited in the near future. It took almost two months to demolish the old structure; now the place started looking like an open field filled with debris and rubbles. Many people got disinterested about the ‘new happening’

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DEBO

which was in full momentum. People felt it was disheartening to see that their own New Market would no longer be the same place where they had many memories to cherish. Some of them wanted not to see the site at all. Firstly, they did not want to get hurt by the sight, and the second reason was that the project area was cordoned off by tall asbestos sheets, which made it very difficult to sneak into there. Despite all that, Marriott Group started promoting the project as a ‘new awe’ for the city. They even started publishing architectural imagery that somehow resembled the old building; they used to promote it as if they were not destroying New Market; rather, they were recreating it. Still, people didn’t show much interest until the shocking news came up that two project workers had died falling off due to a landslide. People started questioning how a landslide could be possible in plane acres of land. This very news suddenly became the moot point of almost every discussion for a few days. Some started saying that it had happened because of the curse of Hogg Sahib, that those who would try to demolish his patent fancy market should be put to death. This news also reached Vikram, who could easily remember his past involvement with the place when he was somewhat new to the police department in the early ‘70s. Now, it had been more than a year that he had retired from services, lately serving as the police commissioner of the city. He personally inquired about the incident and he got some astonishing information about Hogg’s Market that he could easily relate with his past involvement with this place. And with the murder of the police commissioner in the year of 1971 that once shook the city police department to its core. Later on, common people also got to know the fact as the media covered the whole story of the landslide, saying that engineers had confirmed that some kind of underground passage had been there from the very beginning, largely undiscovered, and that was the actual reason for an unexpected landslide, followed by the unfortunate death of the workers. Now that excessive amount of rubbles had filled the passage, only a little dent could be seen from

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