The Consulate Case

In February 2019, Jeet Thakur Sahai visited his good friend Mayank Pasricha in Chandigarh, India. Mayank lived his wife Swati and parents in Chandigarh. Jeet had gone there for a few days. Mayank worked at the Australian Consulate in Chandigarh and they were having a party there on a Friday night. Friends of employees were welcome as well, so Jeet went with Mayank to the party.

Mayank had a Hero Honda motorcycle. Jeet liked motorcycles a lot, so he rode it and Mayank sat on the back seat with him.

The party at the Australian Consulate took place in their main building close to the swimming pool in their campus. About 300 people were at the party. Everyone was having a nice time, but due to some unfortunate reason, a brawl erupted amongst a few guests. It all happened so quickly. By the time security came to take control of the situation, a young woman was very badly hurt. Someone had struck her with a flash light on her head and she was bleeding profusely. Along with a few others, Jeet had gone to help the woman. Police were also being called to investigate.

The young woman whispered: “L’echarpe verte. L’echarpe verte.”

Jeet: “What? What are you saying?”

The young woman in a faint voice: “L’echarpe verte.”

She then passed out. The paramedics were called and she was taken to a nearby hospital. A police officer went with the paramedics to accompany the young woman. Her name was Helene Poiret and she was from France.

Meanwhile, the police had arrived at the Australian Consulate and they were not letting any of the guests leave as they started their investigation. Jeet gave the lead officer, Inspector Balraj Dubey, his credentials and expressed in helping out with the case. Inspector Balraj agreed and with the cooperation of the Consulate’s Security Officers, they started interviewing the guests.

As the interviews kept happening, Jeet went and talked with Inspector Balraj in private.

Jeet: “I think the suspect who assaulted Helene is someone who is wearing a green scarf.”

Inspector Balraj: “Why do you think so?”

Jeet: “Before passing out, she said l’echarpe verte a few times. Each time she said very softly, as she was in a lot of pain and could hardly speak. Those words in French mean a green scarf. I have taken a few basic courses so I know a little bit of French.”

Inspector Balraj: “OK thanks, we will look for a person with a green scarf then.”

After searching the guests, Inspector Balraj and his colleagues found a young businessman Tony Dhillon. He was wearing a nice dark blue suit, a green scarf and brown shoes. Inspector Balraj arrested him. His colleagues let the other guests leave, but told them that if needed they will be contacted again as the investigation continued.

In a few days, Helene at the hospital got better. She gave a statement to the police that during the brawl Tony hit her. She used to be his girlfriend and after their breakup he was very angry. As the brawl kept happening, Helene pushed Tony and wanted to run away to safety. However, Tony got more enraged and took out his flash light and hit Helene very hard on the head with it. As so many people were involved in the brawl, no one noticed Helene being hit by Tony’s flash light so quickly.

The court case against Tony would start in three weeks. Inspector Balraj thanked Jeet for his help in this case.

Jeet spent a few more days with Mayank and his family in Chandigarh. He had a nice time there and then returned to Delhi so that he resume his official work there.