The Case of the Missing Brother

In April 2021 Jeet Thakur Sahai had gone for a week’s training to Gwalior. There he stayed with his cousin Pratap Mathur and his family. Pratap was a police inspector with the Gwalior Police.

After the second day’s training, Jeet returned to Pratap’s home. Pratap returned to his home and asked Jeet to help him with a case.

Inspector Pratap, Jeet and two constables went to a house in south Gwalior. They went to Mr. Kishore Sehgal’s home. Mr. Kishore lived there with his wife Namrata. Namrata had filed a missing complaint as her brother Pradeep was missing for the past three days. They had all moved to Gwalior from Mirzapur two months ago. Kishore was going to work at a bank while Pradeep was going to study for his MA degree in Geography at Gwalior University. Namrata’s parents wanted Pradeep to live with Kishore and Namrata and they were fine with that.

Jeet: “So, Pradeep has been missing for the past few days?”

Kishore: “Yes, he did not return from his university three days ago. We were very worried. Yesterday, Namrata went to the police station to file a missing report.”

Inspector Pratap: “Please give us a recent photo of Pradeep.”

Namrata went inside a brought a photo of Pradeep and gave it to Inspector Pratap.

Jeet took Kishore to one room for a few questions while Inspector Pratap took Namrata to another room for a few questions.

Jeet: “Which bank do you work at?”

Kishore: “I work for Punjab National Bank. It has a branch in the Sardarpur area of Gwalior.”

Jeet: “What do you do there?”

Kishore: “I … I .. manage accounts. You know debits and credits. However, I really like the outdoors, jungles, the mountains, etc. I have a keen interest in cities, countries, etc.”

Jeet: “That is good.”

He asked a few more questions. Later he talked with Inspector Pratap in private after he finished his questions with Namrata. He told him that they should question Kishore and Namrata at the police station because he has a hunch there is something not right with the disappearance of Pradeep. He was also suspicious that when asked about his work at a bank Kishore was more keen in displaying his interest in Geography rather than talking about his job.

Inspector Pratap took Kishore and Namrata to the police station. They were interrogated in separate rooms. After extensive questioning for more than three hours, finally Kishore told them the truth. Pradeep was not actually missing. Pradeep had impersonated Kishore. Namrata was very upset with her husband Kishore recently. A week ago Kishore had hit her a few times which he had never done before. Instead of reporting it to the police she told about it to her brother Pradeep. They planned to murder Kishore the same night. When he went to sleep Pradeep hit him very hard with a cricket bat. As he struck Kishore in the chest he soon died afterwards. At about 1 am at night they placed Kishore’s body in the truck of the car. Since it was very late no one saw them. They drove outside the city for about 30 kilometers and left Kishore’s body there well hidden beneath dense shrubs. They knew that eventually police would find the body but they were planning to leave Gwalior soon and either return to Mirzapur or go to another city.

Pradeep and Namrata were arrested for Kishore’s murder and a case against them would start in the local court in a month.

Inspector Pratap thanked Jeet for his help. Jeet was glad that he could help out.

After his training Jeet returned to Delhi so that he could resume his official work there.