The Movie Theatre Case

In November 2019, Jeet Thakur Sahai went to visit his parents in Lucknow, India, for a few days. They were glad to see him. He was also enjoying a few days of vacation.

One evening he went to the Umrao Movie Theatre. It was a single movie theatre and had been in operation for decades. He was going to see the 6 pm show of the new movie ‘Sabse Bada Hero’ that had Ranveer Singh and Katrina Kaif as the main stars. He reached the theatre around 5:30 pm as he wanted to get his ticket on time.

However, he noticed that a man was lying dead near the ticket counter and police was sealing the auditorium so that the people who had watched the previous show (3 pm to 5:20 pm) could not leave for now. There were about 300 patrons who came to view the show.

Jeet introduced himself to the chief investigator, Inspector Smit Kumar Choudhary. He gave him his credentials.

Jeet: “Inspector Smit, I would like to help out if you don’t mind.”

Inspector Smit: “By all means. The man who died has been identified as Rahul Desai. He belonged to one of the richest families in Lucknow. His uncle Hari Desai owned the Desai Industries Group and the Desai Software Group. Hari was stabbed in the theatre towards the end of the movie and then he came out and fell near the ticket counter. The theatre’s security and staff immediately called the police.”

Jeet: “Let us take a look inside the theatre.”

Jeet, Inspector Smit and a few constables went inside the theatre and started looking while the patrons outside were being questioned by Inspector Smit’s colleagues.

Rahul’s seat number was 22D (near one of the doors) and near 23E a broken piece of a very expensive Rolex watch was found by Jeet. He put it in an evidence bag and showed it to Inspector Smit.

Jeet: “We should check who is wearing an expensive Rolex watch and see whether it is broken or not.”

Inspector Smit: “Yes, I agree.”

Jeet, Inspector Smit and some constables started searching all the 300 patrons who had watched the previous show. About 120 of them were wearing watches and out of them 14 were wearing Rolex watches.

All of the 14 people wearing Rolex watches were searched and one of them had a watch that had broken a little. His name was Amit Mathur.

Upon further questioning it was found out that years ago Rahul and Amit were classmates at the Doon School in Dehra Dun. In a bitter fight over a small dispute Rahul had beaten up Amit badly. At that time Amit forgave him and they both moved on in their respective lives. Recently, after 15 years, they met in Lucknow again. Amit planned on taking revenge. He told Rahul that they should meet up for a movie and then go for dinner. Rahul agreed. During the movie Rahul went out for a bathroom break. Amit went near the door’s entrance and hid behind it. Everyone was watching the movie so no one noticed. When Rahul entered the theatre again Amit swiftly stabbed him. Rahul hit Amit’s hand with force so a bit of his watch broke off. Amit walked out and went to the washroom and threw the knife there in the garbage and washed up and then returned to the theatre. As Rahul was so badly hurt he could hardly say anything but came out of the theatre and fell near the ticket counter. Then people rushed to him and very soon he died. Then the police were called.

Inspector Smit arrested Amit and a court case against him would start in two weeks.

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

That day Jeet could not see the movie there but the following day he saw the movie Sabse Bada Hero at another theatre. It was the Mayfair theatre. Since his parents were not interested in the movie, he took them to dinner afterwards at a nice restaurant in Hazrat Ganj.

After a few days Jeet returned to Delhi so that he could resume his work there.