Escapades of a PSU Executive - The murderer of Nadua.

Escapades of a PSU Executive – IV

This is an imaginary series of the experiences of an idiotic PSU executive, working in a ‘Global fortune 500’ company. Please note that any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

The murderer of Nadua.

In the year 1996, the Idiot was posted as in charge of an Aviation fuel station (AFS in short) in a place named Nadua, which is in the tea belt of Upper Assam.

One of the most interesting memories of that time in Nadua AFS is shared here. A brief description of the place has to be given to get into the mood. The AFS was located deep inside an important airfield fully under the control of the Indian Air Force. The road to the AFS was through a thick jungle.

On the first day, as he reached the AFS, he saw a slimy moss covered old building. The building was cold, dark and foreboding. The jungle with its myriad sounds engulfed the whole area. Walking inside the property, he could understand that maintaining the AFS will be a perennial struggle between the encroaching jungle and human effort.

Tropical jungles or rainforests are the toughest to tackle. The high humidity results in the growth of fungus everywhere. On the third day in the AFS, his men called him to come near the open water tank which is used for firefighting. On the soft mud near the tank were pug marks of a leopard that came there to quench its thirst.

One day a headless torso was found inside the Airforce premises in the jungle. The result of the subsequent investigation was not known to the Idiot. The corpse was of a person who was killed, beheaded and his body was thrown inside the Airforce premises.

He also made friends with a variety of snakes that without any bad intention trespassed into his office premises. Funniest was when he went to the toilet. He found that the cake of soap had been nibbled by something. The office cleaner – Suresh told him that a mongoose had a fancy for soaps and eats a little bit in the night, once in a while.

The work timings of Nadua AFS were strange. Everything depends upon the weather. If the weather is sunny, the Airforce operates from 06.00 AM till 11.00 PM in the night. However, during the rainy weather, no flying happens and no work is done other than the routine work of checking the product quality.

One day, one of his colleagues told him to be careful because there is a murderer among the staff members. Hearing this he was flummoxed. But the man, who gave him the information, did not seem to be joking.

Now Nadua AFS had seven people in totality. Three are from the tea tribes, two are migrants from Bihar and two are from Nepal. All of them except for one had been born and brought up in Assam.

The Idiot was intrigued. How can a murderer still retain his job? A perusal of the office records did not indicate anything untoward.

So one rainy day when there was no work to do, the Idiot cautiously called the union leader and asked him, “Bachu, some people have told me that there is an employee with a murder case here. Is it correct or just false information”? Bachu replied with confidence, “Yes, Bimal Ekka, killed a person in 1990. You may get the details from him when he joins in the second shift”.

Now, Bimal Ekka was the most polite, hardworking and well-mannered person in the office. Since there was not much work to do so he called Ekka for a cup of tea and politely asked him about the matter. Ekka did not seem peeved in having to share the information and one of the most interesting tales of Nadua came out.

Ekka the murderer:

One day in June 1990, after a day of hard work Ekka reached home around 3.00 PM and sat down for a meal of rice and dal his wife has cooked for him. Ekka stayed in the labour lines of a tea estate where many of his family members worked. He had hardly taken two/three gulps of rice when his sister-in-law came in agitatedly crying and told them that a known ruffian of the area has pulled her hand and tried to drag her towards a ditch in the tea garden. He let her go when hearing her scream other labourers came in and raised an alarm.

Something happened to Ekka on hearing the news. He lost his cool and asked his wife to bring him the machete. His wife, knowing the nature of Ekka hid the machete and running away hid somewhere.

Ekka walked out of the house and went towards the labour lines with a stone in his hand. Seeing him from far off, the ruffian started running away. Ekka chased him and caught him after some time and hit his head with the stone. The ruffian fell down on the ground and he lay there making no further movement.

So Ekka came back home and finished his meal. In the evening a posse of policeman came and arrested Ekka for the death of the ruffian. It seemed the ruffian who was heavily drunk was found to be dead by some other labourers and taken to the lone Doctor – who declared him brought dead.

The single officer of Nadua AFS was a person from Kolkata who was tall, dark and a heavy smoker. When the news spread, the officer along with all the staff members went to the police station to meet Ekka. Ekka was comfortable and did not deny that he had hit the fellow. In fact, since his honour was restored so he was quite calm and prepared to take what his destiny will give him.

The officer along with all the staff members decided to save Ekka and thus started a charade in the office.

Ekka was transferred to the central jail in Dibrugarh district and the case proceeded. The people in Nadua AFS, did not report the matter to the head office at Kolkata. Ekka was shown as if on duty in the official register. Ekka’s work was taken up by his brother staff members, who did his share of work without any noise or demand for overtime.

The death report of the ruffian was made by the lone doctor of the Public Health Centre in a place named Hatiali. His name was Dr. Borsaikia. Dr. Borsaikia was known to all the people of Nadua AFS since he made their fake medical bills.

Next day in the evening the officer went to Dr. Borsaikia and requested him for some help. Dr. Borsaikia, said that he cannot make a totally false death certificate, but he offered to change some words. In his medical report, he wrote that the victim was drunk and his death came from a concussion in the head which led to internal bleeding.

As the court case proceeded, every week, one person from the AFS was sent to meet Ekka in the jail. They carried the official attendance register and made him sign for the whole week.

The officer after discussing with the other staff members next met the Govt. pleader who was appointed to defend Ekka. Ekka was too poor or lacked the necessary knowledge to hire any lawyer of his own. The officer met the Govt. pleader and requested him to protect Mr. Ekka since he is a good man. He also gave money to the lawyers of both the sides. The money was collected by a mutual donation from everyone who were in the know.

The ruffian did not have any supporters and no witness came to speak against Ekka. The ruffian’s family was also too poor to pursue the case in the court in Dibrugarh or in any higher court.

It took about eleven months for Ekka’s case to reach the final hearing stage. Based on the police report, Doctor’s certificate and all other evidence the court opined as follows:

1. The victim was drunk when Ekka accosted him.

2. No evidence is there that Ekka hit him with the stone.

3. The victim died due to a concussion in the head which must have occurred due to suddenly falling into the stony ground.

4. Drunkards sometimes fall down suddenly and Ekka cannot be taken as the cause of this fatal fall.

The court gave the benefit of doubt to Ekka and released him. Ekka thanked God and resumed his duties.

An analysis of the case shows that two factors protected Ekka from this mess.

Firstly his wife did a fantastic thing by hiding the machete when he was angry. Had the ruffian died due to a machete cut, it would have been impossible for the lawyer to explain the injury of the ruffian in the court.

Second, was the action of the officer from Kolkata who tried his level best to keep the matter a secret from his own office and took all the pains for the release and exoneration of Ekka. He was a man who did not let office rules cloud his own judgment and listened to his conscience.

However, somehow the HQ in Kolkata came to know about the legal case of Ekka. In those days, Nadua was in the back of beyond without any proper communication system. There was no RTI, Mobile phone, etc. still somehow news of Ekka’s case reached the HQ in Kolkata. The officer who protected him was summoned by the officials of Kolkata.

In Kolkata, the in charge of Nadua AFS recounted the whole story verbally before his Bosses and requested them not to make an issue out of this. He appealed to the inherent humanity of the senior officials and told them, “To destroy Mr. Ekka, will be easy but nobody will gain anything from it.” His Bosses in Kolkata accepted and acted like they knew nothing about the matter.

With time, life proceeded in its placid flow and matter became hidden by the mists of time.

One day, the Idiot asked Ekka – Does the dead man haunt you in your dreams? What about his children? Will they take revenge on you for their father’s death? Ekka’s reply stunned him. He said, “The dead man came in my dreams and begged apology for his misdeeds. I and the whole labour line took care of the dead man’s children. The children call my wife Auntie and play with my children. They have grown up along with my children and there is no rancour or bitterness among us.”

Incidentally, the ruffian’s wife remarried Ekka’s cousin. In their society, remarriage is not a taboo.

Leo Tolstoy wrote a book called “Resurrection”. The book was basically about crime and punishment in a rural setting. What Tolstoy told in the book was – rural societies if given an option will rectify the violence within themselves in the best possible manner without getting into bloody feuds. Similarly, the society that Ekka belonged to somehow rectified the situation of violence within themselves.

Many times after that, the Idiot interacted with the tea tribes of that area. The people were originally from Chotanagpur plateau brought there by the British to work in the tea gardens. They belonged to the tribal community and had many things in common with the tribes of Assam. The people there do not think too much about the past or the future. They live life only for today.

They also drink a potent brew called “Fotika” and their women dance a quaint dance called Jhumur. The greater Assamese society took them as their own and they coloured the cultural fabric of the Assamese with a beautiful pattern.

The officer was a good human being, who listened to his conscience, went out of the way to retrieve Ekka from the mess. He however, did not rise up too much in the corporate ladder. In due course, he retired to a peaceful life and settled in a small house in Kolkata.

The idiot continued with his foolish writings.