Pardon me for any typos as the chapters are from my proof copy 😛
36 – The Final Hearing
As everyone assembled at the court, the judge ordered to resume the proceedings. All the while Ankita noticed Parag giving stealing glances at Sharmi, having withheld himself from admitting to the court for so long, even though knowing about his best friend’s mother being wrongfully accused.
Mr. Hegde stood up. “Your honour, I seek your permission to say a few words,” he said looking at the judge. “Please carry on,” the judge ordered. “With respect to the proceedings till now, there is no concrete evidence on what Dr. Kulkarni has stated in this court. Further, no medical report states that Mr. Banerjee’s condition occurred specifically due to that medicine, though it mentions a specific chemical which is part of its composition. However, the wooden spoon, with Mrs. Banerjee’s fingerprints on it, is the only piece of evidence that still remains more credible. Hence, I rest my case.”
“Ms. Ankita Sarkar, do you have anything to say before I pronounce the verdict?” the judge asked.
Ankita stood up and looked at both Parag and Mou. “I would like to ask Dr. Kulkarni one last question; even if it means that it can turn against my client, it is important that an innocent does not get punished.” The judge nodded. Ankita went towards Parag. “Dr. Kulkarni, you said that you have forced down a bottle of medicine on Mr. Deban. Now, any doctor, including you, would testify that even a small quantity of phenobarbital can cause death; and the medicine that comes in a bottle – that you administer to patients – has so low quantities of that, that even a bottleful cannot harm anyone. Further, we matched the batch numbers of the three bottles that we found at Mr. Deban’s house with the list of missing ones from your stock, and those three were the last ones. The earlier batch that you picked up was two months ago. Hence, I can safely presume that possibly you were not carrying any bottle that day. So, have you been saying this to protect Mrs. Mou Banerjee, or for some other reason? Note that this testimony of yours cannot be substantiated, and hence can ruin the life of this woman,” she said, pointing towards Mou.
Parag thought for awhile. As he turned his gaze towards Mou, all the hardships that his dear friend and her mother have gone through the years, as narrated by her to him at college, flashed in his mind. Tears rolled down his eyes as he sat down on his knees holding on to the railings of the witness stand in desperation. It was a fight within.
In the meanwhile, Karan and Reshma returned. The utter silence of the courtroom seemed somewhat eerie, perhaps indicative of the calm before the storm.
Parag slowly stood up. Still in tears, he pointed at a woman in a black saree with her face carefully concealed behind the veil as seen from the right side, at the farthest left corner of the courtroom. “That woman, my mom, is the one who is responsible for this,” he said slowly in a low grave voice. As soon as he had uttered those words he sat down with a heavy thud. The ground seemed to have been swept off from under his feet.
“Dr. Parag Kulkarni, do you realize that your story has entirely misdirected and also wasted precious time of this court? And that, you may be tried for the same?” the judge said, visibly annoyed with the proceedings since the last few hours. “Your honour, I am sorry – but I was torn between two sides that I hold so dear – one is Mou aunty whom I know to be innocent and also the mother of my best friend, and the other being my mom herself. And I would have no qualms in trying to save both of them,” Parag replied with a bowed head.
The woman rose from her seat as all the eyes in the courtroom turned their gaze towards her. A lady constable quickly took custody of her and guided her to the witness stand. As she walked by the benches, she took off her veil exposing her face in its entirety.
“Simantini!” Mou exclaimed. She was both appalled and stunned at the unexpected revelation; Simantini was hardly recognizable anymore as that woman whose charm had once irrevocably snatched away Mou’s husband. With all her awe worn off, she was a woman who looked utterly beaten up and sick. Both Sharmi’s and Mr. Bose’s faces echoed that of her.
Simantini stared right at Parag with piercing eyes. Mou stepped aside making way for her to step up on the stand on the opposite side of Parag.
“Mom, please, please I request you to admit; it is futile now. Look at that woman whose home you have snatched away one day, and gave her years of trouble. If you don’t speak up now, you will lose the last ounce of respect I have for you,” Parag said in the most desperate tone.
Simantini looked down, holding tightly onto the stand’s railings. As she closed her eyes for a second or two, a few tears rolled out of them and fell on the floor.
“Yes! It is me who has poisoned Deban! It is me who wanted to kill him! For all the wrong he has done to me,” she exclaimed turning her gaze towards the judge.
The judge ordered sternly to first introduce herself to the court, and to remain calm when she talked. “Also, note that the court does not want to hear another misleading story, thereby wasting precious time; else, I will be obliged to take disciplinary action,” he warned.
“Sorry, your honour. I am Mrs. Simantini Banerjee, wife of Mr. Deban Banerjee,” she said. Ankita went up to stand in front of her as she spoke.
“I am the second wife of Deban, who left Mou and his daughter to marry me. This was years back. I was earlier married to Mr. Vijay Kulkarni who blessed me with my son, Parag,” she said pointing out to a tall well-shaven man sitting on one of the benches at the back. She resumed, “Vijay is a good man, but later engulfed himself so much in his business that he forgot that he had a wife at home. I used to come to Bangalore at times to meet my friends. I was introduced to Deban at his institute’s alumni party to which a friend took me. He seemed to gradually take a greater interest in me, to which I obliged and we started living together; later getting married.” She then looked briefly at Mou.
She resumed again, “The first few years were so good. But quite sometime back, Deban started acting weird; his alcohol intake increased, he threw stuff around and grew more abusive day by day. And this is what he started doing to me.” Saying this, she turned around exposing a part of her back covered by her blouse. Parag closed his eyes, still in tears, while Mou, Ankita and the court in general looked at in utter awe; her skin seemed to have been almost ripped off at places, with large stitches and visible red marks.
Turning back facing the judge, she continued, “The torture was not limited to beating, but a lot more than that which I cannot state here; and this went on for quite sometime. Then one fine day, he conveniently declares that he wants me no more, that I have made him throw away his wife and daughter; whom he then wants back. For this man, it is not only me, but also this woman and her family that has suffered so much. Why is it that only the woman gets all the blame? Is Deban a little child that I lure him and he happily gets into my trap?!”
She paused briefly, with the whole court waiting astounded in pin-drop silence. Ankita placed her hand gently on top of Simantini’s as she sobbed.
Regaining her composure and wiping off her tears, she resumed, “When I did not agree, he told me that he knows about my son Parag – though I have never told him about him earlier – and threatened me that if I do not agree, he knows what to do to him. He even knew that Parag was staying in Bangalore itself. Over time, Parag had purposely and justifiably forgotten me. I tried several times to reconnect with him, talking about my plight, and at last he listened; more so when Vijay was kind enough to accept me back. At last, I left Deban and started staying with Parag.” A silence followed.
“So, what happened after that? Why did you decide to kill Deban if you had left him?” Ankita asked. Looking at Ankita, Simantini continued, “Such men do not stop anywhere. Deban again visited me and wanted me on the bed. I was aghast, and he came and forced himself on to me when Parag was not around; every time threatening me with consequences to my son. Later I obliged and went to his home whenever he called, fearing that Parag would come to know of this if Deban keeps visiting. In spite of that, my son eventually got to know of it and had met him a few times asking him, and later threatening him, to leave me. I could take it no more and decided that either he or I should live. I also learnt that he had started coaxing Mou to move in with him along with Sharmi; threatening her with consequences to her daughter if she does not accept his proposal.”
“So what did you do then?” Ankita asked. “Your honour, before I say what I did, I need to tell you something more; I come from a very poor family living in a slum, rarely able to manage two meals a day. My fate made me a thief during my childhood. After several other odd jobs, I ended up as a nurse at a local medical facility before I got married to Vijay … can I have a glass of water, please?” saying this, she paused.
Quenching her thirst, she resumed, “I knew that Mou was supposed to meet Deban on that Sunday. Initially I planned to tell her what kind of man Deban is; hence I went to his place. Later, I changed my mind. I made sure no one, including Mou, comes to know that I was there. I overheard the argument between Deban and Mou from outside. As soon as Mou left, I entered; Deban was blabbering abusive words, desperately trying to stand up, his eyes being half-open. That was my chance. And this is what I gave him.” Saying this, Simantini slightly pressed against her throat and made a weird croaking sound – and to everyone’s utter astonishment, out came a small white plastic sachet from her mouth!
The sachet was carefully taken by a lady constable and handed over to the court’s clerk. Mou was stunned – this was the second time that she witnessed such an act with her own eyes!
Simantini continued, “I learnt this long back, when I was a thief. These are the highly concentrated phenobarbital tablets that I forced upon Deban when he was half-conscious. And these do not come in bottles that Parag gets, but something that are sourced from unnamed alleys of the city where no police ever dares to enter. I had actually been to the hospital where Deban got admitted, and had torn away the reports from the file which mentions this as the cause.” Turning towards Ankita, she murmured, “Dear madam, can you please get my purse from Vijay, if you don’t mind?”
Ankita obliged. Simantini took out two crumpled papers, torn at several places, from her purse, and handed them over to Ankita. As Ankita handed them over in turn to the court’s clerk, she observed, “Your honour, the reason mentioned in these papers corroborate the reports from the forensic department that have already been produced to you; the reason being a high amount of phenobarbital, which when coupled with alcohol, aggravated Mr. Deban’s condition to coma; and if you are wondering how I know all this, I learnt it during my days as a nurse.”
“Your honour, I have a few questions for Mrs. Simantini Banerjee; may I?” Mr. Hegde asked. The judge nodded in agreement.
“So madam, can you please tell the court what were you wearing that day? And secondly, why you changed your mind about talking to Mrs. Mou when you arrived at Mr. Deban’s place?” Mr. Hegde asked.
Simantini smiled. “Hmm, I know why you asked me these questions. I was in a black saree with a red border and a golden embroidered blouse; in fact it was a perfect coincidence with Mou that day. As for your next question, all I can say is, if you have destroyed someone’s home for years, do you think that person would want to listen to you later? Also being the kind of woman that she is, she might not have agreed to my plan. So I thought its better to do it alone; Mou would get the blame, and I could return to stay with my family,” she said, with her tears having turned into sheer arrogance.
“But your honour, the fact remains that the first hit on the head by Mrs. Mou Banerjee was indeed the starting point of an attack on Mr. Deban, and we cannot deny that,” Mr. Hegde observed turning towards the judge.
“I object, your honour. It was a defensive act by Mrs. Banerjee, and I would like to call upon the forensic examiner for his observations. The reports have already been submitted at your desk,” Ankita said. The judge obliged.
The examiner was summoned to the witness stand. “Your honour, our tests show no internal injury to the head of any kind caused by the first piece of evidence produced. The subject already has cracks on his skin, including his scalp that our tests suggest to be an ichthyosis condition. This condition may result in blood simply oozing out if any external pressure, either gentle or impulsive, is applied – and has nothing to do with the actual seizure that followed. However, what is of essence is that the initial seizure happened solely due to prolonged usage of phenobarbital based medications coupled with alcohol, especially under excitement or stress. The resulting paralysis was due to an overdose of phenobarbital as indicated in the reports,” he explained.
An utter silence fell upon the court as the lawyers rested awhile on their chairs, with Simantini staring straight at Parag. Mou kept wondering about the sudden turn of events that occurred so fast. The judge was busy making his notes before announcing the verdict. Sharmi, Karan and Reshma sat hand-in-hand fingers crossed, thinking of their dear friend detained at the witness stand.
After a few minutes, the judge announced the verdict – “After listening to all the witnesses and parties to this court, the court comes to the conclusion, and hence pronounces, that Mrs. Mou Banerjee is not guilty of the charges being brought against her. Therefore, the court withdraws all such charges and acquits her with full dignity. The court further orders the police to take Mrs. Simantini Banerjee into custody for further trial.”
Manas Shome Writes 