Episode 08

'I did not want to say anything before, but I think you should know something about this building.' said Mr Sharma.

'This building is built on the bodies of many people. For all who were present during that year could never forget that incident. The screams of the people went ringing in my ears for years. Till today, I hear their screams. No one helped them. The raging fire engulfed the entire building. Till date, no one ever knew who started the fire.' continued Mr Sharma.

'Isn't the owner of the building and the current builder involved in it?' said Abhay.

Mr Sharma was literally shocked by hearing it from Abhay. He knew it. He remained calm and said, 'Nothing was ever proved and till date, people are fighting to prove them responsible. But the fact is that the head of the hospital Mr Dharam Chakradhar paid good compensations to all the families of both the patients and staffs.'

'How do you know all of this?' questioned Abhay.

'My wife used to be a nurse in Setupati hospital. It is the oldest hospital in our town. We had our perfect lives. I worked as a journalist for a local newspaper. That day I was near the mental asylum covering a story when I heard about the fire. I ran towards the scene and the entire building was on fire. I could see people trying to extinguish the fire, but of no use. Fire wagons arrived, and they tried dousing the fire. They could not find any route to rescue people. The brave fire persons jumped into the building and looked for survivors. The search went on for some time, but the fire was at its peak. After some time, all the firemen came outside. They could find no one. The building was now entirely engulfed in the fire. Dharam Chakradhar, the head of the hospital, was standing in front and his eyes were filled with grief. His dream was now on fire. He kept on requesting the fire persons to extinguish it quickly. After a couple of hours, the fire was doused, but there was nothing left in the building. The half-burnt board of the hospital fell on the ground with a loud thud. There were cries all over.' stopped Mr Sharma for a while.

He continued, 'The investigations went on for days. I covered the news. Many times my articles were rejected by my editor citing lack of evidence. But I kept on continuing. Meanwhile, Mr Dharam without waiting for anyone's suggestion gave away hefty compensations to the families of the staffs involved in the accident and to the families of the patients. Many did not accept it. They demanded a fair investigation against the board and Dharam Ji to be arrested. But nothing happened. There were various cases in court. The police closed the case, giving the report as fire because of an electrical short circuit. The case was closed. Mr Dharam requested all to accept the money and forgive him. He accepted that it was a mistake which no one could rectify it. He never could recover from it. He went into depression. The cases also went cold. But I kept on enquiring further when one day I was fired from my job.'

'Fired? But why?' asked Abhay.

'Someone did not want me to poke my nose into this case. They asked me to surrender all my information and asked to leave the job. I did it. That night while I was returning to my house, some goons attacked me. I was seriously injured and was hospitalised for many months. Seeing me in this state, my wife's health deteriorated. Once I was back on my feet, we left this town. We went to our hometown and spent our remaining lives over there. Our son went to Delhi for further studies. We stayed in our town. I worked for a small newspaper in that town. My wife worked as a nurse in a private nursing home. We spent our lives peacefully until one day our son informed us he got a good job over here. But he was asked to leave for Auckland for some time for a project. Our son was not aware of the history. His company had given him the flat, and he had invited us to stay here. When we saw it, we were shocked, but seeing the happiness on our son's face, we said nothing. We continued to stay here. Slowly, my wife's mental state deteriorated. She started hallucinating, and her sleepwalk increased. I did not want to inform it to my son. He is far away from us and he won't be here for another three months. So, I wanted to inform you and if you can help us.' said Mr Sharma in a requesting tone.

'How can I help you, uncle? I know it would sound odd, but I am experiencing something odd in this building.' said Abhay.

'Yes, from some days I am feeling as if there is someone else in our house. Sometimes I see my wife talking to someone and when I go to the room, I see her staring at the wall and talking to herself. But when I confront her, she says nothing.' said Mr Sharma.

'Did she ever say anything about what she saw?' questioned Abhay.

'She remembers nothing. Only once he said a name which sounded familiar. She just said Surender.' said Mr Sharma.

Episode 09

For the first time, Abhay did not understand how to tackle this situation. He was still not sure what was the spirit looking for. He called up Madhav to discuss it and informed me about it.

'So, you are saying the place is haunted and the spirits are looking for revenge.' said a confused Madhav.

'I am not sure about it. We need to find out more details about the incident. Where can we find more details about it?' asked Abhay.

'The details would be present in the archives and also you can visit the town library where you can find newspapers during that time.' said Madhav.

With it, they got into investigating the details. Abhay and Vipul were in the library looking for newspapers during that time. The library was digitised a few years back and according to the librarian, some documents never saw the light of the digital world. So, there is a slim chance of this information getting lost in it. But Abhay and Vipul did not lose hope and kept on searching for it.

'Hey, I think I found something.' said Vipul. He zoomed the news article.

A reporter of a local newspaper wrote it. The details mentioned were very detailed. It seemed as the reporter was an eyewitness to all of it. All the minute details to the mishap were clearly mentioned in it along with the details of the loss. Apart from it, they found nothing.

'Did you find anything?' asked Madhav as he left the archives room.

'Most of the articles had gone missing during the digitisation process but we could find an article with all the minute details in it. We will bring it to you.' said Abhay.

The three sat in the station, and Madhav was going through the article. Suddenly, his expression changed when he saw the name of the reporter. He opened the file and looked into it. He looked surprised and looked at them.

'I think I know the person.' said Madhav.

Episode 10

'He is Sharma uncle. I had a talk with him yesterday. He told me as to how he was forced to leave this investigation in between and someone had attacked him over covering this news.' said Abhay.

'You mean your neighbour is the same Pradeep Kumar Sharma we are talking about. He was the most famous journalist in our town. He had helped to reveal many scams during his time. He had left this town many years ago. Never knew he is back and is your neighbour.' said a confused Madhav.

'I think he may help us in taking it forwards. When can you meet the builder and the owner of this property, sir?' asked Vipul.

'The owner, Dharam Chakradhar stays nearby. He has become too old and is always confined to his bed. I spoke to his son, Surender Chakradhar who was also a doctor in that hospital. Now he runs a small centre treating patients with mental ailments. I would meet them today. Regarding the builder, Laxman Senapati, I am still trying to be in touch with him. It seems he is not in the country. His office said he would be back by this weekend. I would meet him next week.' informed Madhav.

With it, they parted ways. Abhay and Vipul talked to Mr Sharma and clear things.

'Hello, uncle. If you do not mind, can you come over to my house? We would like to discuss something about yesterday. I know you dislike discussing it, but it is important as something has come up.' said Abhay.

Mr Sharma nodded and came with them to their house. They seated themselves in the living room.

'Can I get you something, uncle?' asked Abhay.

'Nothing beta (son). What is it you want to know?' asked Mr Sharma.

Abhay showed him a copy of the news article. Mr Sharma was taken aback on seeing it.

'Where did you get it? As of I remember, nearly all copies were destroyed and the people behind it saw that there is nothing in the market as well.' said Mr Sharma.

'We got this in the library. You are right. There is nothing about this incident. This was the only source over there.' informed Vipul.

'Uncle, can you tell us who was behind all of this? Did you get to know anything about it?' asked Abhay.

Mr Sharma looked at both of them and said, 'That is the issue in this case. Everyone believed that maybe the person interested in the land was involved but I found nothing relating to him. The fire was started from inside. I did not believe the police. I hired a PI and asked him to check. He confirmed that the fire broke due to a short circuit and it looked like some from inside did it.

Abhay and Vipul stared at him in surprise.

Episode 11

Madhav waited in the reception for Surender Chakradhar. The clock ticked slowly as the minute hand was slowly dragging itself towards three, while the hour hand had slowly displaced itself from five to a negligible distance. He tapped his legs while he looked around the room. It was not a luxurious hospital. There was minimal interior inside the premises. They hung enormous wall posters in places where all kinds of stuff were written about mental situations and treatments. The staff were well dressed. The receptionist was busy receiving calls and her hands were busy crackling the keyboard of the system kept in front of her. She spoke softly over the phone, a trait mandatory for the role of a receptionist.

After some more minutes passed, the receptionist got a call. 'Sir, you can go inside. Dr Chakradhar is waiting for you in his room. His room is the last in the row on the left side.' she informed Madhav with a smile.

Madhav smiled reluctantly and went ahead. He was never comfortable with pleasantries. He walked in the narrow corridor and looked at all sides. Proper CCTV cameras were fixed everywhere. There were no patient rooms in that corridor, but it seemed like there were visitor rooms and other rooms which he could not understand. He reached in front of his chamber and knocked at the door.

'Please come in.' A deep voice called out.

'Hello, Dr Chakradhar. I am Inspector Madhav. How are you?' started Madhav.

'Hello, Inspector. I am fine. How are you? Hope everything is fine. How may I help you?' said the Doctor.

'Doctor, I know this may be painful for you, but I am in here to discuss the incident which happened at your hospital thirty years back.' said Madhav in a gentle voice.

Dr Chakradhar was taken aback. His expression wore a disturbed look. He started blinking rapidly and relaxed back and did not look at the officer. He kept quiet for some time.

'How many times our family has to undergo the pain of describing it? That was not just a hospital for us. It was our family. That day we lost our families and we could do nothing for them.' the doctor's voice trembled when he spoke.

'I am sorry. I know this can never be a pleasurable thing to relive it again and again. But there is something which has come up and we need to be on the same page before taking it forward.' said Madhav.

'I was not present on the day of the incident. I was out with my family when my father informed me about this incident. When I met the police officer, they informed me about the incident. Later, in the report, they blamed the poor electric circuits which led to this mishap. But I showed them the details about the electrical circuits being replaced some time back, and the building had gone through some changes. It was an old building. But people never believed us. They blamed us for neglecting the maintenance of the building. Just tell me, officer, why would we do anything to the hospital when it was our dream?' said Dr Chakradhar. His tone was shaky when he said it.

'Did your father, or you had any enemies?' asked Madhav.

'Not to my knowledge. There were many people who used to spread rumours against our hospital being a torture house for the patients. But that could never be proved. There were some jealous people who did not want us to serve society. My father always used to say these are those persons who see our patients as an evil influence on society and don't want them to be a part of our society.' the doctor said.

'I like your father's philosophy and completely agree to it. Everyone deserves the right to live. Can you just give me anything that could suggest that there has been some foul play in this incident?' asked Madhav.

'No, sir. That day I was out of town with my family. We never got into it much. We compensated everyone involved in it and left the place. A few years back, I started this place as I could not stay away from serving the mentally challenged people of our society.' said Surender.

'So, what about the apartment? Why did you sell the land to the builder?' questioned Madhav.

'We never sold it. Laxman uncle is my father's friend. He suggested to us he would help in building this apartment. He used his infrastructure and built it. We were given some amount of the earnings from it. The plot remained empty for so many years. My father could not get away from it. So, he convinced my father and finally, after we all discussed, he agreed to it.' said the doctor.

Madhav was surprised in knowing about the new fact. He stood up, shook hands with the doctor and left the place. He had some recent information in his hands.

Episode 12

Abhay, Vipul and Madhav sat in Abhay's living room. They were talking about the details they had collected. The sweet aroma of tea filled the entire room. It was cloudy outside, and the cool winds blew into the living room. The branches of the trees were shaking slowly because of the wind. The sky was getting ready for a downpour. Big gloomy clouds had covered the sky. The slow rumbling of thundering was heard faintly. It felt as if the thundering fell at a distance. Abhay sat near the door of the balcony and was looking outside. Madhav was sipping his tea and Vipul was trying to search for something on the iPad.

A flash of huge lightning struck near Abhay's apartment and he was taken aback by it.

'It seems it will rain heavily tonight.' said Madhav.

'Seems so.' answered Abhay.

'What are you doing, Vipul?' questioned Madhav.

'I was looking for the builder details over the internet and trying to find out if I can get any old information about him and Dharam Chakradhar. But it seems that chapter has been entirely removed from the history of this town.' said Vipul.

'That's strange. Even I found nothing in the police records. It seems someone does not want people to know about it. Who must it be? Is it Dharam, Laxman or some third party who hated Dharam and wanted to take revenge on him.' said Madhav while sipping his tea.

'Did any employee survive that accident?' asked Vipul.

'I had asked John to look into it. I am sure he would surely come out with something. Do you know he is suspicious about you both?' said Madhav with a smile on his face.

'Why?' exclaimed both of them.

'He is confused that you both spend so much time with me and I discuss cases with you. If you are ok with it, I would like to tell him all about you. I think he deserves to know considering the help he provided us during the last case, and I am sure he would be of lots of help in the upcoming cases.' said Madhav.

'Do you think he would believe you, sir? He would laugh on hearing it.' said Abhay.

'I don't think so. What do you say?' said Madhav.

'Ok.' said Abhay silently.

The rains poured heavily and the heavy sounds of rain falling on the balcony made a blasting sound. Madhav got up and informed them he had some other work and left. After some time, Vipul also left as he had some work. Abhay stood all alone near the balcony and looked at the dreary skies and the trees, which shook because of the heavy rains.

Episode 13

The next day, Madhav was sitting in his chamber when John came.

'Good morning, sir.' he wished Madhav with a salute.

'Good morning, John. Anything for me?' asked Madhav.

'Yes, sir. I could locate some people who used to work at that hospital. Their families were not allowing me to talk to them. But with lots of difficulties I could get an audience with them.' said John with a hint of a smile on his face. The expression reflected that he deserved an appreciation.

'Well done. John. Come on, tell me what you got from them and after that, I have got something for you.' said Madhav.

'The people were so old. They do not seem to remember much, but there was something which everyone mentioned. There were instances of treatment going wrong or tortures to the patients and the inappropriate behaviour which was never verified. But there was one thing common to all.' said John.

'What is it, John?' asked Madhav.

'There were talks among the staff members about some patients being sexually assaulted. It was never verified, and no one took it seriously, but the staff were sure that there were some instances where some had claimed that they saw something like that happening in the hospital. I could get nothing more than this. Some serious patients were treated harshly, but they reported it as they required it for the treatment. Few patients left the place. Their treatment went on for years. One even claimed that they had a secret chamber where patients were tortured, but according to his family members, he was hallucinating. He was not in his right senses since the day of the incident.' said John.

'What if he is not hallucinating?' questioned Madhav.

'I am sure he was. After that, he started speaking gibberish. He spoke about stars falling on earth on that day which led to this incident. He even blamed the hospital people for not conducting any pooja (worship ritual) within the premises. I am sure that there is no chamber, but I am sure about others. We should definitely look at the sexual assault thing.' said John.

Madhav nodded and sat in silence for some time. He was thinking about what to do next when he received a notification. Had another one. This one is big.

'John, I have something to tell you. Get in the vehicle. I will tell you on our way.' informed Madhav as they left towards Abhay's house.

Episode 14

The building looked extraordinarily silent being a weekend. The sun shone brightly, and the light fell directly inside. The wind was still cool and Abhay had left the door and the curtains open for the cool wind to come inside. The room smelled nice. The kitchen area smelled of coffee. Madhav and John arrived and were settling down.

'Where is Vipul?' asked Madhav.

'He would be here in some time. He is on his way.' said Abhay.

John sat silently. He was still processing all the details shared by