That was the Prohibition & Excise police station in
Gajuwaka area. Inspector Raghuram ordered their staff to gather in his office. “I
got an information that our local MLA is involving in making Sara (Sara is a
local made alcohol which making is illegal). It has to be enquired and evidence
needs to be gathered. Who will handle this case?” Raghuram asked. Entire staff was
looking at each other. There was tension in their faces as they have to run
after the local politician. And they were thinking that if the given
information was right, they would have to file a case against the politician
which may put their life in risk. Raghuram observed their tension and told a
constable to call Pranav as Pranav was in leave. After some time, Pranav
reported to Raghuram. Before he speaks, he observed the silence in the room and
tension in their colleagues’ faces, and then asked Raghuram why he was called.
Raghuram told him about the information and asked whether Pranav was willing to
take this case. Without second thought, Pranav said yes to handle the case.
With that answer, the remaining staff was shocked.
Pranav
was a head constable, got transferred to Gajuwaka excise police station 1year back.
He is very sincere, dedicated and honest person. He had 15 years of experience
in the department, solved many cases and got good appreciations, awards from higher
officers.
He
started investigation with the information Raghuram provided. First of all, Pranav
enquired all his local contacts regarding the politician, his contacts and
businesses. There was no much useful information with that enquiry. He also
enquired the local youth and people who arrested previously in the Sara making
cases. He got confirmation that the information was correct; the MLA has a hand
in the Sara making & supplying. He has to find and gather the evidence where
they were storing the stock, to face the politician. Pranav thought, generally
MLA will assign these illegal tasks to those whom he believed most. So Pranav gathered
a list of names that MLA believes most. He got a list of 10 names.
Pranav
knew that enquiring those 10 people as a police officer is very difficult and
dangerous. He got a plan and wanted to
implement it. For that, he shaved his head. He called his wife and without explaining
much about the case, he said “we have to go to the area and act like searching
for rented home”. She didn’t object to go with him as she knew him very well.
The couple entered the area. They were going to every home in their list. She
was enquiring about rented home nearby while Pranav was observing the home and
their surroundings. They almost visited
all the homes in their list and reached the end of the colony. Pranav observed
a rice storage factory at the end of the colony. While he enquired about the
factory, he came to know that it was the MLA’s factory. He surmised on it and
wanted go inside. But how? He was thinking about it and observing the surroundings.
He saw some palmyra toddy labors working on palmyra trees back to the factory. Immediately he got an idea. That day night, he
met a palmyra toddy labor, asked him to observe what was happening in the
factory all the time. That labor climbed the tallest tree and observed the
things were going on in the factory for the whole day.
The
next day the labor met Pranav and explained what he saw and told, some cans were
taken out from office room and loaded to lorries along with the rice packets in
the evening time. Pranav was very happy with that information as he got the
evidence which can be proved. And he gave some amount to the labor and warned
him not to tell anyone about this. Pranav met the inspector Raghuram and explained
everything he collected till now about the case. Raghuram was very happy and appreciated
Pranav for his effort.
Raghuram gave orders to ride on the
factory. A team along with Raghuram and Pranav went to the factory when the MLA
was not in the city. The team was spread across the factory and searching for
Sara. Raghuram and Pranav went into office room; they saw nothing in the room.
Employees in the factory told Raghuram that there was nothing. Pranav stepped
on a thin door mat next to him. He felt like something under it. He removed the
door mat and saw a type of door. He opened it. There was storage under the
ground. Raghuram along with his team went inside and found lots of cans with
Sara. They seized everything, put them on their vehicles and arrested the staff
working there and registered a case against them.