Six Suspects (50 page)

'If you want to live in the city you have to think ahead
three turns, and look behind a lie to see the truth and then
behind that truth to see the lie.'

Vikram Chandra,
Sacred Games

Arun Advani's column, 27 March

MURDER, SEX AND AUDIOTAPE

There was a time when solving murders was easy. They
fell into predictable patterns of cause and effect; were
slotted into neat categories of motive like
jar, joru
or
jameen
.
Money, woman or land.

Nowadays you have serial killers, sex maniacs, junkies
and psychopaths stalking our streets. Sick people who kill
just for fun. And the graph is rising constantly. A violent
crime is committed in India every three minutes, a murder
every sixteen. Worse, of the ninety murder cases recorded
every day, the vast majority never get solved.

Luckily, the murder of Vivek 'Vicky' Rai will not meet
this fate. Because true to the promise I made earlier in this
column, I have solved the case, uncovered the bare truth.

I must confess, though, that in this exposé there has been
some divine providence at work. People tend to think that the
main tools which we investigative journalists use are hidden
microphones and miniaturized recording devices. But that is
not true. The biggest resource we have is not a piece of
electronic equipment; it is the support and cooperation
of members of the public. They are the ones who provide the
anonymous tip-off which becomes the lead in a murder case.
They are the ones whose observant eyes and alert ears often
result in the seizure of a suspect. It is the vigilance and
diligence of a concerned citizen which has helped me blow
the lid on India's most high-profile murder case.

Yesterday morning a thick packet arrived at my flat. It
was yellow, nondescript, with just a typewritten label giving
my name and address. When I tore it open, I discovered eight
audio tapes nestling inside the bubble wrap. I spent the whole
of yesterday and most of last night listening to and transcribing
the tapes.

The entire transcript will be published in tomorrow's
edition of this newspaper. Reserve your copy now, because
the evidence on what I have named the 'Jagannath Rai Tapes'
is nothing short of explosive.

There were six suspects in Vicky Rai's murder, but only
one murderer. As I write this, the ballistics report has yet to
come. But there is no need for it now. I can announce the
name of the murderer: it is Mukhtar Ansari, a well-known
contract killer whose main base of operations is Uttar
Pradesh. And the man who gave the contract is none other
than Jagannath Rai, the Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Vicky Rai's dad.

The Jagannath Rai Tapes are not just a chronicle of a
father reaching his nadir. They also document the depths to
which our polity has descended. They lay bare the cynical
machinations and brazen wheeler-dealing which oil the
creaking wheels of democracy in our most populous State.
They expose the sordid mess in Uttar Pradesh, which the
probing beam of investigative reporting has either not
reached or has warped into the pallid light of yellow
journalism. The message of the tapes is a bleak one. There
are no heroes in shining armour. We are all naked in the
hammam. But the buck stops with us, citizens and voters. It
is our apathy and indifference that has led to the criminalization
of politics and allowed mafia dons like Jagannath Rai
to win elections, become MLAs and ministers, and convert
the entire State into their fiefdom, where they can break the
law with impunity. The Home Minister's involvement in
Vicky Rai's death is only the tip of the iceberg. For a fuller
record of his murderous (and amorous) activities, readers
will have to wait till tomorrow.

Extrapolating from the tapes, I shall now put forward a
hypothesis of what really happened on the fateful night of 23
March. Jagannath Rai had decided to get rid of his wayward
son to secure the support of his wayward flock of MLAs and
become Chief Minister. He gave the contract to his trusted
hitman, Mukhtar Ansari. The plan was simple. Jagannath Rai
left the service entrance of Vicky Rai's farmhouse unlocked,
which enabled Mukhtar Ansari to come in undetected. He
had the farmhouse lights switched off at precisely five minutes
past midnight. Mukhtar finished off his work in that
instant and raced out through the service door before the
police swooped down and sealed the exits.

I can only speculate over what the six suspects were
doing in Vicky Rai's farmhouse with guns in their possession.
But I can say this with complete certainty: they did not
kill Vicky Rai. The killer – Mukhtar Ansari – is out there, at
large. He needs to be caught before he kills again.

To the Good Samaritan who sent me the tapes, I say
'Thank You'. To Jagannath Rai, I say 'Good Riddance'. The
publication of the transcript should signal the termination of
both his political and criminal career. It should mark the end
of a sorry chapter in the history of the State which has the
largest proportion of elected representatives in our
Parliament.

It is my fervent hope that the publication of the Jagannath
Rai Tapes becomes a clarion call to our leaders and to all
citizens of our country. Let us resolve to cleanse the political
system of criminal elements and ensure that law-breakers do
not become law-makers. That is the only way to safeguard
and strengthen our democracy. That is the only way to ensure
a future worthy of our children.

Aired 28 March – 10:07

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN
ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BARKHA DAS: The publication of the Jagannath Rai Tapes by Arun Advani
has come like a bombshell. Politicians in Lucknow, whose names are
featured in the explicit transcripts, are scurrying for cover . . . In a day of
fast-moving developments, Jagannath Rai, the Home Minister of Uttar
Pradesh, was arrested for the murders of Vicky Rai, Pradeep Dubey,
Lakhan Thakur, Navneet Brar and Rukhsana Afsar, and the abduction of
Gopal Mani Tripathi's son . . . We have our Lucknow correspondent,
Anant Rastogi, standing by. Anant, what's the latest?

ANANT RASTOGI: Barkhaji, it looks like the end of the road for Jagannath
Rai. For twenty years he has kept the State in his iron grip, conducting a
reign of terror and oppression, but finally the law has caught up with
him. I think the People's Welfare Party is now paying the price of keeping
criminals like him in its fold.

BARKHA DAS: But Jagannath Rai is claiming that all these cases are fabricated,
that there is no evidence, and that this is a conspiracy by the Chief
Minister.

ANANT RASTOGI: He cannot deny the evidence on the tapes. Now his
voice has been confirmed by experts. The Chief Minister has, therefore,
moved swiftly to limit the damage.

BARKHA DAS: Very true, Anant. In fact, a short while ago we managed to
speak to the Chief Minister himself. This is what he had to say:

CHIEF MINISTER OF UTTAR PRADESH: My party, the People's Welfare Party, is
deeply disturbed at the charges laid against Jagannath Rai. If they are
proved to be true then he deserves the severest punishment. Jagannath
Rai has not only been removed as Home Minister, he has also been
stripped of his membership of the PWP. The entry of criminals into politics
is an unfortunate reality and every political party is equally guilty. I
take this opportunity to call for soul-searching by all political parties. As
a first step to cleanse public life, my party, the PWP, has taken a decision
that henceforth no legislator with a criminal record will be made a minister.

BARKHA DAS: Well, those are welcome words from the Chief Minister
and we hope other political parties will follow suit. Meanwhile, full-scale
efforts are underway to track down Mukhtar Ansari, the contract killer
hired by Jagannath Rai. A Special Task Force of police is believed to have
obtained some vital clues in the case. We shall keep you posted on the
latest developments. For now, this is Barkha Das signing off for ITN
Live.

Aired 28 March – 14:35

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN
ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BARKHA DAS: There have been dramatic developments in the Vicky Rai
murder case. Police have reported a breakthrough in their hunt for
Mukhtar Ansari. His badly decomposed body was discovered earlier
today in a house in Sarai Meer on the outskirts of Azamgarh. Forensic
experts have confirmed that he died of a gunshot wound, and that his
body had been lying in the house for at least a week. If this is correct,
there is no way Mukhtar Ansari could have been in Vicky Rai's farmhouse
on 23 March. So who killed Vicky Rai? To answer this question, I
now have the Police Commissioner of Delhi, Mr K. D. Sahay, joining us
via videolink. Thank you, Sir, for talking to us. I believe you have some
news in the Vicky Rai murder case?

K. D. SAHAY: Well, Barkha, first of all I want to caution your viewers that
they should not believe all that they read in the papers. The great
investigative journalist Arun Advani's famous hypothesis has been
exposed as a fabric of lies.

BARKHA DAS: With due respect, Arun Advani couldn't have known about
Mukhtar Ansari's murder. But have you got any more leads, Sir?

K. D. SAHAY: Leads? We've cracked the case! I am in a position to tell your
viewers who killed Vicky Rai. You see, we had six suspects who were all
found to be carrying guns on the night of the murder. And we managed
to recover the bullet, which passed through Vicky Rai's body and got
lodged in the wooden bar. The final ballistics report which came in yesterday
showed that Vicky Rai was killed by a .32 bore bullet. And the
gun which matched the bullet was recovered from Jiba Korwa, a tribal
from Jharkhand. He was carrying a locally made improvised revolver of
.32 bore, popularly called a
katta
, and that has been conclusively proven
to be the murder weapon. Jiba Korwa was seen lurking near the mains
switchboard. It was he who first switched off the lights, then ran into the
hall and shot Vicky Rai.

BARKHA DAS: And what is Jiba Korwa's explanation for being in the farmhouse
that night?

K. D. SAHAY: He gave us a cock-and-bull story – pardon the expression –
that he had come to the farmhouse to steal a
shivling
which belonged to
his tribe, but Vicky Rai never had this
shivling
in the first place. Our
contacts with police in other States have revealed that Korwa has a
criminal record a mile long. He is wanted for fraud in Tamil Nadu and
murder in Bihar. But the real breakthrough came when we searched
Korwa's quarters and recovered a considerable amount of Naxalite
literature. We believe he is one of the ringleaders of the Maoist
Revolutionary Centre, an outlawed Naxalite group responsible for
killing over one hundred policemen in Jharkhand alone.

BARKHA DAS: But why would the Naxalites target someone like Vicky Rai?

K. D. SAHAY: Because Vicky was investing in the Special Economic Zone
project in Jharkhand. The Naxalites had been sending him death threats.
Finally they got him. But we have also got the murderer – Naxalite
leader Jiba Korwa.

BARKHA DAS: Thank you, Mr Commissioner, and congratulations on
solving this case. That was Police Commissioner K .D. Sahay. So it looks
like the final chapter in the Vicky Rai murder case has been written. Or
has it? This is Barkha Das, reporting for ITN Live.

Aired 31 March – 13:21

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN
ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BARKHA DAS: In a sensational development, well-known actress Shabnam
Saxena and her secretary Bhola Srivastava were arrested today in an
apartment in Khar, Mumbai, for the murder of Mukhtar Ansari. Several
incriminating tapes were also recovered from the couple's possession.
We have our Mumbai correspondent Rakesh Vaidya standing by.
Rakesh, what do you have for us?

RAKESH VAIDYA: Well, Barkha, after Sanjay Dutt's conviction in the 1993
Mumbai serial blasts case, this is easily the biggest scandal to hit the
Indian film world. The industry is still in shock. Producers who had paid
millions to Shabnam are keeping their fingers crossed.

BARKHA DAS: Do the police have any idea what might have prompted
such a prominent actress to do such a thing?

RAKESH VAIDYA: Well, the police are working on several leads right now,
Barkha. What I have learnt is that Shabnam was having a love affair with
her secretary, Bhola Srivastava, who had made several rather graphic
tapes of her. These tapes somehow fell into the hands of Mukhtar
Ansari, who began blackmailing her. So Shabnam went to Azamgarh to
pay off Mukhtar and retrieve the tapes. We don't know what really happened
in Azamgarh, but there are witnesses who saw her leaving the
house where Mukhtar Ansari's body was subsequently found. As you
know, she was also one of the suspects in Vicky Rai's murder, but had
been allowed to go after ballistics confirmed that the gun found in her
possession was not the murder weapon. Now the police have conclusive
proof that the same gun was used to kill Mukhtar Ansari. The tapes
have also been recovered from Bhola Srivastava's flat, so it all seems to
fit in.

BARKHA DAS: Do we have any word from Shabnam at all? How is she
responding to these allegations?

RAKESH VAIDYA: Well, Barkha, the bizarre thing is that Shabnam Saxena is
now claiming she is not Shabnam Saxena at all, but some girl called Ram
Dulari from a village in Bihar. She says she has never been to Azamgarh
in her life and was only Shabnam's stunt double. Obviously no one is
buying this outlandish theory. It looks to me as if she is going to go for
an insanity plea. I can say this—

BARKHA DAS: One second, Rakesh, I have just been handed a note which
says that a short while ago police shot dead Jiba Korwa, the notorious
Naxalite leader, as he was attempting to escape from
the Mehrauli police station lock-up. The Maoist Revolutionary Centre
has condemned the police action and vowed to take revenge. But coming
back to the Shabnam Saxena saga, Rakesh, it seems to be getting
curiouser and curiouser.

RAKESH VAIDYA: Absolutely, Barkha. At this point only one thing is clear.
We will not be seeing any new Shabnam Saxena releases for a long time.
No pun intended. (
Laughter
.)

BARKHA DAS: Thanks, Rakesh. Well, just a reminder of our top story.
Shabnam Saxena and her secretary and lover Bhola Srivastava are in jail
for the murder of dreaded gangster Mukhtar Ansari. We don't know
how this will turn out in the end, but it has all the hallmarks of a block-
buster. We will continue to keep you updated on this fast-developing
story as more reports come in. And don't forget to tune in to our
'Insight' special at 19:00 hours. Tonight we focus on Bollywood's links to
crime. This is Barkha Das signing off for ITN Live.