The Case of the Missing Cell Phone - Part II

The description of the girl they gave me, matched 99% with a girl we knew as 'Greeno'. There's an interesting story behind her. On the first day of college, Abhishek, Chinmoy and I were dejectedly loafing around cursing the fact that there were no hot chicks on campus. And in walks this Greeno lady from the ground. She had fine thick hair, an unblemished pretty striking sharp face, and a cute petite frame. And those killer kajal lined eyes. She had worn a green t-shirt, so we christened her 'Greeno'. Hehe.

So I requested my friend Sophia to find out whether Greeno had lost her cell fone, and whether the girl actually fit the description. The most striking thing was, the accent. They branded hers as a 'stylish heavy accent'. Greeno talks in a heavy american accent. But Greeno had NOT lost a cell fone. Interesting.

And the girl hadn't contacted me yet...and there was a notice for interrogation against my name. There was only two logical surmises -

1) When the girl gave her missing cell fone number, maybe the cop took it down wrong and it somehow turned out to be my number.
2) The girl, might be trying to frame me. There have been rackets reported in the city where free-spending teens, suddenly finding themselves broke and incapable of financing their lavish life styles, have resorted to blackmail and false-theft rackets.

What was the chance that 1 would be probable? Very less. My uncle thought it was 2, and we decided to contact a couple of cops and also consult our lawyers. First thing on monday, I decided I'd drive down to my uncle's office and then move on to another uncle of mine for a round table conference...hehe. He's wired into many cops and lawyers in the city and has experience in such matters...uh...uh.

While driving down to my uncle's office, my cell fone buzzed. I stopped and took the call. The conversation went something like this -

Person - Hello, is this Abhilash? (female, stylish accent)
Me : Yeah, may I know who's talking?
Person : Who's talking??? I am the girl you stole the cell fone from!
Me : Okaaaay...and you are?
Person : I am Vaishnavi...where's my cell fone?
Me : Lady, first of all calm down. I don't know you, I haven't seen you, I haven't met you. How can I steal your cell fone?
Person : I don't know. You didn't come to the Police station when Inspector Kashi called you. You recieved a call from my stolen fone and don't deny that. This is the fourth cell fone I've lost and I am not letting it go. It was a Motorazor. Do you know how expensive it was?
Me : I won't deny, I won't accept anything until and unless my lawyer's present. And I won't talk to you until you calm down.
Person : If you don't appear at the thana, I'll send cops down to your place.
Me (cold and soft) : Look, cops won't get to my place and you'll make sure of it. My granny lives alone and is a heart patient. If anything happens to her, you'll regret it. I am going to the station with my uncle and lawyer, relax till then.
Person : Uh..oh ok, come to the thana then, we'll talk.

Two things struck me.

1) This girl is logically challenged. If I recieved a call from the stolen fone, how could I have stolen it? Would I be foolish enough to steal a cell fone, give it to a friend of mine, and ask him to call me from it? Heights of absurdity. And her parents...gosh, she loses 3 cell fones and the 4th one she gets is a machine that costs 20 Grand!

2) The possibility that the cop has made a mistake, can be entirely ruled out, since she knew my number. So we considered no.2 and proceeded further.

My uncle and I proceeded to college and had a chat with my class mentor and HOD. They conveyed that they were shocked that such an allegation had been levelled against me and they'd certainly try and help. They advised us to get a lawyer and settle things soon, and if need be, teach the girl a lesson, if indeed she was deliberately trying to frame me. Then we met the Principal. Here, one more thing came to light.
The girl, apparently had violated the college protocol and had gone straight to the police, instead of submitting a letter to the Extension Officer and informing the principal. Since she had not come to him, he couldn't summon the girl and interrogate her. I somehow got the feeling Father was not really willing to wet his hands. But he certainly had a point, and we couldn't argue. So we took leave.

We went to my other uncle's office in Gandhi Bazar and had a lengthy chat and deliberated, argued and analysed every point. With the information we had then, it was clear to us that it was a case of either blackmail or framing a crime with malicious intent, for which the girl could be pulled up in Court. We decided to keep a couple of cops 'informed' and also consult a lawyer. Deepti's dad is an advocate. So I asked her whether my aunt and I could meet her dad and consult him. She said that he dealt exclusively with civil cases, but told us he would see us. We visited him in his office and discussed the case with him. He also was of the same opinion as my uncle, and advised us to consult either Adv. C V Nagesh or Subramaniam Jois, both of whom were reputed attorneys and known to us. Nagesh is by far the most powerful attorney in town. We decided to get his counsel. Unfortunately, he was involved in a serious case, and after discussing aunt's previous case with her, he gave us preliminary counsel and ushered us out.
We decided to give the matter rest for the night.

What information I got the next morning was really unforeseen and radical. But it made things seem even more logical and made many things very clear.