The flared tensions continued as both Vishal and Sandeep seized each other with their gazes, neither of them backing down. A moment's pause later Sandeep fumed and stepped past Vishal, stalked off to his chair andsat down, reigning his temper into control.
Vishal took his time to turn back and face the DSP.
Standing upright, he stated, "Neither of us have to feel bad about this, sir. We both did what we could do to get what we want. It is already a known fact how those in power treat you like and how those who have nothing, like me, suffer to get what we deserve."
Sandeep grit his teeth, "Do you really know the consequence of your actions? You think this is beneficial to finding Mitra?"
Vishal gave his well thought out answer, "I can think of two ways this would unfold. One: they would go with the flow of the public sentiment and the opposition parties' agitations and calls for a redressal of the situation, thereby going into a full-on political battle. Two: if the ruling party emerges more powerful from the start, they would try to control the media and make them highlight every other case or content in the media to divert the public's attention away from their scams. In the second scenario, they would use Mitra's case too to deter public interest, in which case, you would be asked to drag the investigation as long as possible. They will use the delay in catching the culprit and ask the media to keep highlighting the police's inability to solving the crime."
Vishal gave Sandeep an empathetic look as he said, "They will use everyone as scapegoats to cover up the political scandal."
Sandeep had assessed the same the minute he realized the implications of a political battle. He glared daggers at Vishal as he uttered, "You are smart, Vishal. But this isn't a good approach. You want Mitra's name to be dragged through mud every day in news reports?"
A gleam of sadness in his eyes, an untoward quiver on his lips, a flash of pain on his face, all of that silenced Vishal for a moment. "I don't," he finally managed. "But this is the only method I could think of, to avoid the foul play you had planned."
He controlled the agony of his decision and said, "All I ask of you, sir, is to do your duty truthfully. Don't be intimidated by public opinion. They are not the ones responsible for this incident and they won't bear any responsibility for anything that happens. I am not doing this to please any of them. I am doing this for Mitra, forher parents and for myself."
"This isn't so big a scam, Vishal, to divert the attention of the public. It will get covered up within a couple of days," Sandeep clarified.
"Then another one will break out," Vishal warned. "Truths of all the different scams that have been hidden in plain sight will keep bursting out into the open. And let me clarify this," Vishal elaborated as he walked towards Sandeep's table. "I didn't plan this alone. I just set it into motion. The VTN executives are the ones deciding on this. They feel the media houses are being harassed by the government to not speak up against them. There's too much censorship and they had been planning for a long time to corner those who are obstructing their duties as news agencies. I just provided them with the fuel they needed and asked them to speed up their declaration of war. This is not going to stop here."
Sandeep didn't avert his gaze as he tried to pierce some fear into the strong bearing Vishal had standing opposite to him. Vishal didn't flinch despite knowing the kind of grudge Sandeep was forming against him.
He had messed with the police and politicians at the same time on one serene evening and was still standing unaffected.
"Leave," the DSP commanded Vishal. "We would be occupied tomorrow. I will let you know the investigation results of enquiring the criminal gangs we know. We will take it up after that."
"Thank you, sir. I will be in touch with the Cyber team to see if they have found anything." Vishal nodded his head in a greeting and stepped out of the room, leaving Sandeep to his work.
He knew it wasn't a meaningful measure. Vishal was trying to block a flood with a weak wooden barrage. It could be damaged with a strong force. In the midst of all the clamouring of the political factions and public criticism, there would come a time when people will forget the lines between righteousness and greed, between empathy and blame, between asking for justice and framing unjust acts as law.
Somewhere in that chaos, he would have minimal attention and proper support to find where the woman he loved was buried.
Vishal spent the night tidying up the mess he had made in Mitra's house, and in his mind. He needed to be clear headed.
He got a message from Basava that they would be releasing all the suspects with the name 'Sashi' whom they had locked up in the morning and continue investigation as they had been. It felt relieving to an extent that innocent people wouldn't be victimized to do a spurious justice to another victim. It would be such an irony if he, being ajournalist, had to report the wrongs of the investigation he himself was a part of.
He barely had any sleep the few hours of the remaining night, battling longing, anxiety and guilt. At seven in the morning he surfed through the various regional and national news channels to check out the developments.
As he had predicted the tv networks were all giving the news based on their political alignment. The pro-government networks were reporting the scandal in a very light tone, passing it off as a move by opposition to defame the government without proper evidence. Vishal chuckled, amused by the sham.
One such news channel, however, was telecasting a special report on Mitra.
They weren't running it as a report of a mysterious, unfair and failed atrocity; they had turned it into a sob story. The reporters had gathered all the personal information on Mitra: her birthplace, her parents' information, her education and job. They had inquired some of the neighbourhood people of all the places she had lived in, her teachers in school and professors in college, her classmates who had never been close to her but indulged in talking behind her back, to gather tales of how sweet a person, how learned and disciplined she was.
They had even taken the pain of scanning through the thousands of comments in online channels to see the tiny anecdotes Mitra's acquaintances mentioned about her good and righteous character.
"Mitra wasn't a simple girl who went about only her daily life. She was a responsible citizen who never backed off from speaking out against wrong actions and questioning irresponsibility of fellow people," the reporter narrated as he showed a couple of pictures of damaged roads and the improper garbage disposals on the roads in her neighbourhood that Mitra had tweeted out to the Municipal Corporation, demanding appropriate action from them.