Inspector Sahu sat brooding in his office in a town in UP. He was a worried man. There was an increase in crime rate in his area. Normally, people kill their fellow-citizens, mug them but recently even the dead were robbed from their resting place in cemeteries!
Besides Christians and Muslims some Hindu castes bury their dead. There were instances in the recent past when the robbers dug the freshly buried dead to steal clothes and jewelry. At times, they also removed the whole bodies to sell them to medical and scientific institutes. There were also reported cases of ghosts seen at this particular cemetery which scared the wits out of people living in the vicinity. So people scarcely moved outside after darkness.
Inspector Sahu was desperate to nab these criminals and find out about the scary ghosts which frightened the residents . When he came to know that a rich businessman had died and was to be buried with some of the jewellery on his body, Sahu thought this was a good opportunity to nab the grave-diggers. Surely, they would know about this lucrative case from their informants and would plan their nefarious activity in the darkness of the night.
So Inspector Sahu decided to spend the late evening at the cemetery after the burial rites had been carried out in the afternoon. He took a hawaldar with him for company, armed with a gun and sticks. He chose a vantage point and settled down behind a bush with a clear vision of the newly laid grave of the businessman. It was a long wait and he could sense the unrest of the hawaldar. The insects, being disturbed by the humans, made a chorus of screeching noises which played on the nerves of the policemen. Some of the demons started probing them by venturing inside their shirts and trousers causing ungainly convulsions in the two men. Inspector Sahu learnt that, more than the trouble created by the insects, the hawaldar was scared of ghosts and was shaking a bit. Sahu would have brought someone else if he had known beforehand about the hawaldar’s predicament.
As they waited patiently, time seemed to have frozen. After what seemed an eternity they could see some movement in the distance. Two figures with white robes could be partly seen behind the bush and the long grass. Then both men were shaken to the core when the two apparitions came closer. One of the figures was floating about five feet above the ground and moving in a strange wavy movement. Inspector Sahu had nerves of steel but still was scared of that bizzare and freekish spectre. He glanced at the hawaldar and was shocked to see his convulsed face. His eyes were about to come out of their sockets! Within a few seconds the hawaldar passed out and lay in a heap in the bush. Inspector Shahu had regained his composure and wanted to investigate the incident but he had to consider the worrying condition of the hawaldar. He lifted his limp body and took him to the vehicle parked a few yards away and then drove to the hospital and informed his family.
Next morning, Inspector Sahu went to the cemetery to investigate. Sure enough, the grave was disturbed and the body was stripped of all valuables including clothes. Inspector Sahu was distraught! He had missed an opportunity to nab the criminals. At the same time it gave him the jitters down his spine when he recollected last night’s floating apparition as it moved above the bushes and the long grass. He was completely puzzled by the experience! Is it possible, he thought, that the evil spirits were helping the outlaws in their fraudulent activities? But he was a logical man and thought there must be a saner explanation for what happened the previous night.
Inspector Sahu was kept busy throughout the next week with matters concerning petty crimes but at the back of his mind he kept thinking about the ghost and the grave-diggers who gave him the slip that fateful night. Then one fine early morning, a man of about twenty entered his office with faltering steps. He was reasonably well dressed and seemed to be an educated man. But he was extremely nervous and kept looking around him with scared eyes as if danger lurked in all corners. Inspector went outside to see whether anyone was following the man but did not notice anything fishy. Inspector Sahu asked the man to settle down in a chair and offered water and some tea to calm him down.
On questioning, the man gave some incomprehensible answers of which Sahu could not make head or tail. He vaguely mentioned an ugly looking man and danger to his own life but could not give any valid details. He fumbled for words and had bouts of trembling limbs and his lips quivered. When things came to a dead end, the inspector told him to go home and asked his assistants to follow him. His idea was to speak to him the following day in his house where he would feel more at home and comfortable.
Inspector Sahu went to see the man – his name was Manish- the following morning. Somehow, he had a feeling that Manish had some vital information on the grave-diggers. Probably he had seen and heard the criminals discussing their nefarious plans and when the thugs saw him, they had chased him with the intention of silencing him. Manish had escaped and then took solace in Sahu’s police station the previous morning. Now Inspector Sahu had a keen sense of anticipation as he entered Manish’s small flat on the ground floor of a two storey building.
The front door was open and as the inspector stepped inside he was in for a shock! The lifeless body of Manish lay slumped on a table with a wire tightly wound around his throat. His eyes were wide open staring sideways at a wall. Inspector Sahu looked around for clues and found a piece of paper lying below the bed. Probably the paper had fallen off the table during the struggle and the culprits had failed to notice it.
Manish was in the process of writing the details of his encounter with the culprits when he met his untimely death. It seemed Manish had gone outside to get some fresh air at dawn, when he heard two men, discussing their plan to sell the merchandise and valuables they had robbed from the dead. They also planned to take part in a lucrative roadshow to be held on the following day at Freedom Square. From the distant street light, Manish could see that one man was tall and very ugly. He panicked and gave a subdued involuntary shriek! This alarmed the lawless-men who rushed menacingly toward him. Manish was a strong runner and the pumped-up adrenaline in him made him run even faster. He gave the scoundrels a slip and continued to run till he reached the police station.
Inspector Sahu told his assistants to cordon off the site of the crime and begin the routine investigations to unravel the the murder.
Inspector Sahu had a hunch that the roadshow at Freedom Square might give them some insight into the whole murky affair. So the next day, he got dressed in civilian clothes along with a few assistants, including the hawaldar who had fainted on that black night, and reached Freedom Square by 10 am. The Square was agog with excitement as both the participants and the spectators eagerly waited for the annual show to begin.
At last the parade got started with small boys and girls showing off their skills in martial arts. Following one after the other, the performances of the different participants got more complex and interesting as the spectators cheered and egged them on wildly with cheers. It was now one hour since the beginning of the show and people waited excitedly for the last item of the show which is always the best.
Inspector Sahu was closely looking at the contestants, especially if there were any tall and ugly men, but he was not getting any joy. Then from the cheers of the crowd he sensed that the last group was about to come forward to show their artistry. With the accompaniment of choice Bollywood songs, came a troupe of dancing men who were also master gymnasts. They had long torches which they used to throw streaks of fire jets from their mouths to the great amazement of the crowd. Behind these fire-belching men were three guys walking on 5 to 6 feet tall stilts. They were dressed as jokers and made funny faces, and danced acrobatically as they balanced perfectly on their stilts.
A bright light clicked inside Inspector Sahu’s head! He remembered that cold and dark night when he saw the white- robed ‘spirit’ moving high above the ground in the cemetery. Inspector smiled to himself! At last he was making progress. All three stilt-walkers wore face masks and so he was not able to see whether one of them was ugly-looking. He waited patiently after the parade was over and the artists started removing their make-up and fancy dresses. Out of those three men who had walked on the stilts, one was quite tall and looked so ugly! This was my man, thought Sahu! But why did he not think earlier of this method being used by the miscreants at the cemetery? He was so stupid!
Inspector knew that with the information available with him it would be difficult to convict the culprit. He sent his assistants to follow the man to find out his address and to keep an eye on him. Then he devised a plan. When the next body went for burial, he would make sure that it was laden with imitation jewellery which looked real. Then he would wait fully armed in the evening to nab the grave-diggers and murderers.
He took with him the same hawaldar who had fainted last time. This time around he kept him fully informed so that he knew what to expect. To be on the safer side, he took along a third assistant.
After they waited for an hour or so, the evil ‘spirits’ came in white robes, one of them floating above the ground and the other moving on the ground. At the opportune time Inspector Sahu proceeded forward, meeting the culprit head-on. With swift action, Sahu used his lathi to hit the stilts with force. Down came the vagabond, falling to the ground with a thud so loud! The stilts were painted black so that they were not visible at night. Both of them were caught with tools like knives, spades, pickaxes etc. Fingerprints were taken which matched those found around Manish’s house. When confronted with the evidence that Sahu had, the killers admitted to their guilt and were successfully prosecuted.