The Case of the Missing Cell Phone - Part III

Tuesday morning dawned fine and fresh. I drove to the Hotel during breakfast time and asked around if the SI had dropped in for his daily free gift. They directed me to the nearest party hall saying he had informed them that he'd be there.

Once there, the SI started talking to me. Ever seen a drill bore into wood? Poor thing, this wood didn't protest too...
And then at the end, he declares he's lost the Notice. What a chap! But he assured me he'd get my license back the next day. I drove back home to park my bike and take a rickshaw down to uncle's office. While I was about to start from home, I got a call. The conversation went something like this -

Person : Hi Abhilash, Vaishnavi here...
Me : Yes?
Person : So are you coming to the police station?
Me : Yes I will. I am right now going to my uncle's place, and then from there we'll go and talk to our lawyer and reach the police station
Person : Why do you want a lawyer? You haven't been accused of anything!
Me : Oh yeah? And the police sent that notice because they were jobless and wanted to screw around with random students, right?
Person : No! They sent you that notice because they wanted to talk to you.
Me : Why? How did my name get involved?
Person : Here talk to my mother...
Person's Mother : Hello Abhilash? This is Vaishnavi's mother speaking. My daughter has lost her cell fone and she says it's been stolen. The police are investigating it. Can you tell me anything about it?
Me : Madam, I do not wish to make any statements to you without my lawyer being present.
Person's Mother - Look, you don't need to get a lawyer...
Me : Why? Yesterday your daughter called me and accused me of stealing her fone. She didn't realise the implications of doing so. She can't do that when legalities are involved. Maybe she did it out of anxiety or immaturity. I can sue her for false accusations and trust me, if she keeps on like this, I'll be tempted to do it. How did my name get involved in this business?
Person's Mother : She did it only out of anxiety. It's the third cell fone she's lost and she doesn't want to lose this one too. See, after the theft, the thief made one call from the stolen fone, and that is to your cell fone. That's how the police traced you. When they called you, you didn't come to the station. So they served a notice against you.
Me : Ok, I get it. I'll be there, the day after tomorrow in the morning at 9. Please be there.
Person's Mother : Right. Thanks. If she's said something harsh or wrong to you, we'll apologise.
Me : Can I talk to vaishnavi please?
Person : Yeah tell me...
Me : How and where did you lose your cell fone?
Person : Well, I was in the library and I had kept my cell fone in my bag and gone to a desk to study. Your class was there. When I came back, someone had flicked my fone.
Me : Hmm...ok, we'll settle it tomorrow. Be there.
Person : Ok. Thanks.
Me : Thanks. Bye.

Now things were beginning to get clear. So the girl wasn't deliberately trying to frame me. Someone had placed a call to me from the stolen cell fone. That means, it had to be someone who knew me....hmmm.

Then suddenly, that fone call, which I recieved a fortnight ago in the canteen, struck me. It might just be possible that this was placed from the cell fone. And the person asked for Chinmoy. Which means that the person knew both Chinmoy and Me.

I tried to connect the events of the day. I asked Niraja to remember what day I had gotten the call. She confirmed it was two weeks ago. Then it started to fall into place. Our class was in the library. Meaning, it had to be a free lecture....Bhaskar sir was absent the whole of that week, and his lecture was free. Which only meant one thing - Someone from our class had either stolen it, or was involved as an accomplice.

Things were looking bad. I had this plan in mind to narrow down the person, if it didn't turn out to be someone from my class (she'd be let into the class to see if she could identify the chor)

1) Attendence records of the 3 lectures would be compared...especially the one before the chemistry lecture and the one after the chemistry lecture.
2) Library records would be compared.

Something had to turn up there. It was with this plan in mind I went to college next day, with my uncle, to hold a preliminary round of talks with the girl and my class mentor. That day, she revealed some more things to us, which rendered my plan useless...and complicated the business. Hmmm....