Ch. 36 · The Investigation Takes a Turn

Chapter 36

The Investigation Takes a Turn

For a few moments, silence fell over the conference room.

Everyone was staring at the anonymous letter.

Rajat Dutta forced a laugh and said,

— "Sir, letters like this, with no name attached, are worthless. Anyone could have sent it."

Amitabh Chakraborty replied calmly,

— "An anonymous letter isn't proof. But if it contains information that can be verified, it can become a lead for the investigation."

Rajat Dutta didn't say anything more.

The head of the investigation committee said,

— "The departmental inquiry against Meghla is being suspended for now. This new information will be verified first."

Meghla let out a breath of relief.

Rajat Dutta's face hardened.

He realized his first move had failed.

After the meeting ended, Amitabh Chakraborty took Meghla aside and said,

— "Remember one thing. Don't keep any information hidden, but don't accuse anyone without verifying it either."

Meghla nodded and said,

— "Yes, sir. I only want to bring the truth to light."

— "Do just that. But keep everything within the law."

Meanwhile, Rajat Dutta went into his cabin and shut the door.

Sanjay asked anxiously,

— "Sir, what happens now?"

Rajat Dutta slammed his hand on the table and said,

— "If they start digging into the bank transactions, the shopkeeper could crack."

— "So?"

— "We need to meet him tonight. He needs to be told exactly what to say."

That evening, after office hours, Rajat Dutta went straight to Madhumoy Sweets.

It was closing time.

The shop owner, Haripada Mallick, was pulling down the shutter.

Rajat Dutta said in a low voice,

— "We need to talk."

The two of them went inside the shop.

Haripada asked, worried,

— "What's happened?"

Rajat Dutta said,

— "Someone has gotten hold of the bank records."

The bunch of keys slipped from Haripada's hand.

— "Impossible! There's no way the bank information could have gotten out."

— "Nothing is impossible. Get rid of everything from today — the old account books, the receipts, whatever's there."

Haripada hesitated.

— "But those are..."

Rajat Dutta said in a hard voice,

— "Do exactly as I say. If we delay, we're both in danger."

While they were talking, neither of them realized...

A man was sitting at the tea stall beside the shop, pretending to read a newspaper.

A tiny video camera was fitted to a button on his shirt.

The man slowly stood up.

He noted down Rajat Dutta's car number, the time he entered the shop, and the time he left — everything.

Then he sent a single message on his phone —

"Secret meeting between suspect and shop owner confirmed. Further surveillance can begin."

No one yet knew who the message had gone to.

But for the first time...

Without realizing it, Rajat Dutta himself had come under surveillance.

To be continued...

Chapter 37

Investigation at the Sweet Shop

The next morning.

As people came into the office, everyone noticed Rajat Dutta was unusually quiet that day.

He kept checking his phone.

He wasn't talking much with anyone.

Meghla's suspicion grew even stronger.

Half past eleven in the morning.

Amitabh Chakraborty, the head of the audit team, came to the office again.

But today he didn't go straight inside.

Stopping the car outside the office, he told his two colleagues,

— "We're going to Madhumoy Sweets first."

Both of them were surprised.

— "Not the office?"

— "No. Sometimes the answers in the books are hiding outside the office."

As they entered the shop, owner Haripada Mallick came forward with a smile.

— "What can I get you, sir?"

Amitabh, without ordering any sweets, said,

— "I'd like to take a look at your business register."

The smile vanished from Haripada's face.

— "Why, sir?"

— "There have been large digital payments over the past few years. We'd just like to match a few entries."

Haripada began to hesitate.

— "The register... it's not at the shop."

— "Where is it, then?"

— "With the accountant."

Amitabh said calmly,

— "All right. Then give me the accountant's contact number."

Haripada was now visibly rattled.

Right then, the same businessman Meghla had seen a few weeks earlier walked into the shop.

He went to the counter and said,

— "Give me one 'gulab-khas'."

Amitabh watched everything in silence.

Along with the box of sweets, a small receipt was handed over.

Written on the receipt —

GK-412

Amitabh smiled faintly and said,

— "How interesting! Does every special order get its own separate code?"

Haripada answered quickly,

— "Yes... just for our shop's own accounting convenience."

Amitabh said nothing more.

But he wrote the receipt number down in his own notebook.

Meanwhile, sitting in the office, Rajat Dutta got the news —

The audit team hadn't come to the office; they'd gone to the sweet shop first.

His face went pale.

He called Haripada immediately.

The phone was switched off.

He tried again.

Still off.

He whispered to himself,

— "Now this has really gotten complicated..."

In the afternoon, Amitabh returned to the office.

He didn't say anything to anyone.

He only said, addressing Rajat Dutta,

— "Tomorrow I'll need explanations for a few bank transactions. Please have the relevant documents ready."

Rajat Dutta forced a laugh.

— "Of course."

But by then, beads of sweat had formed on his forehead.

That evening, just before office closed, a message arrived on Meghla's phone.

"Kamala Devi is alive. But she is being kept hidden. If you want to know the truth, come alone tonight at 8 PM to the old railway warehouse."

There was no name at the bottom of the message.

Meghla stared at the message for a long time.

Was this really news about Kamala-di?

Or...

Another new trap?

To be continued...

Chapter 38

The Old Railway Warehouse

Reading the message on her phone, Meghla was torn.

"Come alone..."

She didn't like the sound of that.

Over the past few months, she had learned —

Wherever there's injustice, there's a trap too.

She called Ananya right away.

She told her everything.

Ananya said firmly,

— "You are absolutely not going alone."

— "But what if it really is Kamala-di?"

— "Even then, no. Tell someone first."

Meghla thought for a few moments and sent a short message to Amitabh Chakraborty.

"I've received an anonymous message about Kamala Devi. I'm going to a specific location. Letting you know as a precaution."

She didn't write anything more.

Eight at night.

The old railway warehouse.

Darkness all around.

Broken walls, a rusted iron door, a courtyard overrun with weeds.

Meghla slowly moved forward.

Suddenly, a faint voice drifted out from inside.

— "Meghla..."

She startled.

The voice sounded just like Kamala Devi's.

— "Kamala-di! Where are you?"

Right at that moment, two masked men emerged from behind her.

One of them said,

— "Give me the phone."

The other said,

— "And the bag too."

Meghla understood —

This was a trap.

She gripped her bag tightly and said,

— "Who are you?"

The man shouted angrily,

— "No more questions. Where's the pen drive?"

Meghla's heart pounded.

So they had come looking for the pen drive!

At that exact moment, a car's headlights lit up in the distance.

As the sharp light hit them, the two masked men panicked.

Several security guards came rushing forward.

Amitabh Chakraborty was with them.

He called out loudly,

— "No one try to run!"

The two men took advantage of the darkness and fled.

A mobile phone dropped to the ground from one of their hands.

Amitabh came up to Meghla and asked,

— "Are you all right?"

Meghla nodded.

— "Yes... but they knew about the pen drive."

Amitabh bent down and picked up the phone lying on the ground.

The screen was still lit.

The last dialed number was visible.

No name was saved.

But seeing the last four digits of the number, Amitabh paused.

...4582

He had seen this number somewhere before.

Suddenly, it came back to him —

The partial bank account number Meghla had noted down also ended in the same four digits, 4582.

He said calmly,

— "It seems, for the first time, two separate threads have come together in one place."

Meghla stared at him in astonishment.

Now the investigation no longer rested on suspicion alone.

The first real connection had begun to form.

To be continued...

Chapter 39

The First Big Mistake

The morning after the railway warehouse incident.

Walking into the office, Meghla realized no one there knew about it yet.

Rajat Dutta was sitting in his cabin working, just as before.

His expression was normal.

As if nothing had happened.

Meghla thought to herself,

"If he's truly innocent, why would he be this anxious?"

Meanwhile, Amitabh Chakraborty sat in his temporary investigation room, writing down the previous night's events one by one.

On the table lay —

the mobile phone found at the warehouse, notes on the documents from the pen drive, and a few copied pages from Meghla's diary.

Going through the phone's call list, he noticed something.

One number had been called 87 times in the past month.

No name saved.

Just the number.

He made a note of it.

That afternoon, Rajat Dutta left the office, saying,

— "I'll be out for an hour. I have an urgent meeting."

The car pulled away.

But one of Amitabh's team members began following it from a distance.

The car didn't go to any business establishment...

It went straight to Madhumoy Sweets and stopped.

Rajat Dutta went inside.

He came out about fifteen minutes later.

There was no box of sweets in his hand.

There was a black file.

The investigating team member, from a distance, only recorded the time, the place, and photographs.

He didn't intervene himself.

Because his instructions were —

"No action. Just gather information."

Meanwhile, inside the shop...

Haripada Mallick was saying anxiously,

— "Sir, I can't take this anymore. Every day there's a new question."

Rajat Dutta held back his anger and said,

— "Just a few more days. After that, everything will settle down."

Haripada said, his voice trembling,

— "What if the bank asks for the accounts?"

Rajat Dutta answered,

— "The bank can ask for the accounts. But why the money came into a personal account — I'll answer that. You say nothing."

Haripada kept his head bowed.

Fear was plain on his face.

That afternoon, Amitabh Chakraborty held a meeting with his colleagues.

He said,

— "So far we have a great deal of suspicion, but nothing solid enough to hold up in court."

A colleague asked,

— "So what's the next step?"

Amitabh replied,

— "We follow the money. Money never lies."

That day, just before the office closed, someone left a white envelope on Meghla's desk and walked away.

Inside was a single sheet of paper.

Written on it —

"Next Friday at 6 PM, the manager himself will take a large sum of money. This time, not at the sweet shop... somewhere else. If you truly want to expose the truth, this is your last chance."

Below it was an address.

And one more line —

"Don't go alone."

Meghla held the paper tightly.

She understood...

This time, it might not just be proof of past corruption — a new crime could be caught red-handed.

To be continued...

Chapter 40

Suspended

Walking into the office, Meghla sensed that something was about to happen today.

Everyone at reception was looking at her, whispering.

No one would meet her eyes.

Right then, PA Sanjay came over and said,

— "You need to go to the Managing Director's conference room right away."

Meghla's heart began to race.

Stepping into the room, she saw —

Binoy Sen, the HR head, a legal department officer, Rajat Dutta, and a few other senior officials, all seated.

The atmosphere in the room was unusually grave.

Binoy Sen said slowly,

— "Meghla, a serious accusation has come against you."

Meghla asked calmly,

— "What accusation, sir?"

The HR head opened a file.

— "That you leaked confidential company documents and attempted to damage the organization's reputation."

Meghla said in a firm voice,

— "The accusation is completely false."

Right then, Rajat Dutta said,

— "Sir, I have witnesses."

One by one, four employees entered the room.

Meghla watched, stunned...

Among them was Ananya too.

Ananya stood with her head bowed.

The HR head asked,

— "Do you know anything about this?"

Tears filled Ananya's eyes.

She said, her voice trembling,

— "...I saw Meghla taking photographs of some office documents."

Hearing this, it was as if lightning had struck Meghla's mind.

She cried out —

— "Ananya! You know that's not true!"

Ananya couldn't lift her eyes.

She could only cry.

Meghla understood...

Ananya had been forced to give this testimony.

But there was no way to prove it.

After a long discussion, Binoy Sen bowed his head and said,

— "Until the investigation is complete, you are being suspended."

Hearing these words, it felt as though the ground had given way beneath Meghla's feet.

Her ID card was taken away.

She was told to hand in her office laptop.

A security guard escorted her all the way to the office gate.

Standing outside, she looked back at the office building one last time.

The office where she had found a new life...

Today, that same office had thrown her out like a criminal.

Standing at a distance, Rajat Dutta smiled faintly and said,

"Game over, Meghla."

But he didn't know...

At that very moment, sitting in his own car, Amitabh Chakraborty received a phone call.

A voice came through from the other end —

"Sir, all the bank transaction records have arrived. Now the real game begins."

To be continued...