"Definitely Sekhar, I will be coming back to Hyderabad after tracing the whereabouts of the missing businessmen." I asked Sekhar, "What about the other case? Any lead there?"
"Yes, this case is similar to what we are dealing with but different in one or two aspects. The victim is Jennifer, wife of one of the leading businessmen in India. This businessman lost all his money recently and went bankrupt, he started again on his own to recover. During this process, his wife underwent a lot of emotional stress. They lost their fortune and she had to compromise on many things, causing
embarrassment for her in her social circle. She faced insults on social networking platforms and attempted suicide. Her husband saved her. Very recently, she joined a cult group on social media. At this point of time, doctors found that she was suffering from NEAR syndrome. Her husband was busy rebuilding the lost empire and didn't pay proper attention to her. Her health started declining and she finally died of severe depression, but we cannot say that conclusively. We still need to find out if she really died of depression or because of over medication." Sekhar paused for my feedback.
"Fine. Let me comeback to Hyderabad, then we shall focus full time on these cases." I thanked him and hung up.
I called Smith to find out if they were able to trace any possible clues. Smith did not pick the call but I got a text message from him saying that he was in an important meeting and would call back shortly."
I switched on the TV. There is news of new breed of animals that had been created accidentally by the scientists during research. These animals have been found to have a completely different gene sequence and their breed is strong enough to survive generations.
During the interview, the scientists Mr. Scott and Mr. David said, "We were trying to identify a new drug that can cure many diseases for animals like cows, pigs, horses and monkeys and found a new gene sequence while creating the drug. We are yet to explore in what ways these animals are different from their current generation. We will soon be coming out with complete details."
A new breed? And that too with a new gene sequence? It sounded surprising to me. And all this happened by accident?
I wonder if God had started revisiting the Mother Nature setup and tried to replace the older models. Maybe he feels he might have to release newer and upgraded versions of his creations. I got ready and left for the Colva beach.
It was the time that most of the fishing boats that go into the sea come back and start selling the fish they caught. I felt these people could give some clues. One fishing boat came and I heard people say that this boat had comeback to shore after two weeks.
I approached the boat owner and asked him, "Were you coming back after two weeks? So, does that mean you went deep into the sea and stayed there for two weeks?"
"We were there for almost 10 days. We usually go to Agatti island for selling 40 percent of the fish we catch and get the remaining here," said the boat owner.
"Sell 40 percent there? Any specific reason for that?" I asked.
"Agatti island is a tourist place and we get good money for the fish. Also, the food and other logistics we carry won't be sufficient for us to travel back to shore, so we sell fish at Agatti, get required supplies and come back here," said the boat owner.
I held up photographs of the businessmen and asked him. "We have a few people missing and are investigating the case, they were all seen near the shore when they went missing. By any chance, have you seen some private boats or yachts on the sea?"
"When did this happen?" asked the boat owner. "Three days back," I replied.
"Three days back, we were packing and getting ready to come back from Agatti. We don't have any idea of what happened on the sea during that time. But I have heard rumours that some rich people go under the sea, stay there for some time and comeback. Though personally, I have
never seen such a thing happen in the last fifteen years, nor have my friends." Saying this, the boat owner left the place.
Rich people go underwater and stay there? How could it be possible? Even if they use a submarine, it is difficult to remain untraced under the radar of coast guard and navy. I wondered to myself.
Based on what Smith and the boat owner had mentioned, I felt these assumptions could possibly be correct, but if a search operation has to be done in the sea then it has to be done by the navy.
I called the headquarters and asked for support in the form of a search operation in the sea. Until they find some clue, this will be out of my control and I will not be able to do anything with respect to the missing cases.
I packed and started back for Hyderabad, sent a message to Sekhar and Cathie that I am travelling back to Hyderabad and will be meeting them tomorrow.
I was about to get up from the bed when somebody knocked the door. I opened it and found Sekhar and Cathie standing outside.
"Jai! We may need to speed up the investigation, there are some more similar cases and all of them are NEAR syndrome patients. We need to resolve these at the earliest to find out who is behind all these murders, or if these are natural deaths caused by extreme medication," said Sekhar.
'Let us meet the businessman, husband of victim in Case Three. Did you manage to get his appointment?" I asked Sekhar.
Sekhar replied, "He is not ready to talk to us about his wife, he wants to stay away from all this. He went on a vacation to Australia and is expected to come back in two or three weeks. But do you think talking to him will bring in any information?"
"Sekhar, I have some suspicions on him, I doubt if he has intentionally drugged his wife and killed her. Did he go alone on vacation or is there anyone accompanying him?"
"He travelled alone, but at the same time I tried reaching his personal assistant who was not reachable on her mobile phone. She is out of station for some time. So, I went to the businessman's office and found about his vacation from his staff," replied Sekhar.
My suspicions had started coming true. However, I didn't want to say anything until I had found potential clues about this guy.
"I got access to the social networking account of Jennifer, let's find out what was she up to all these days." I showed them her account. We three started exploring her account details and activity history for the last three years.
In the very beginning of her profile creation, initial searches and invitations were for high profile people in the society. She always searched for those who spent money like water, who were using all hi-fi tech gadgets, costly ornaments, and expensive cars.
She was putting everything about her life on the social networking platform. This included her moments with family, friends and neighbours.
What concerned us was that she had put all the personal and private intimate moments with her husband on the social networking platform.
Later, when her husband started failing in business, she stopped posting anything. However, her friends in the group started posting about how her husband was losing and rude comments started pouring in.
This is when she was diagnosed with NEAR syndrome. She ceased verbalizing with everyone, confined herself to her room, spent a lot of time searching the Internet on how to reinvent and make the most of life.
Exactly at this point, she came across the cult group on social media. A group called ROAR group, or "Raise Of Almighty to Reorganize". The main objective of this group was staying alone, not trusting people, completely staying away from relations.
"Stay away from relations? Are they crazy? What is that they want to achieve out of this?" Sekhar vented his anger and frustration.
Sekhar, as an expert psychologist, had helped many people come out of their psychological illnesses. He always felt that human beings were spoiling their life by getting attracted to unimportant things.
He had treated many psychologically ill patients and helped them come back to their normal life. He believed in human relations and felt that people should stop relying on technology and start relying on each other personally.
"We need to identify the details of this cult group. I tried to find out more details about this. But it's completely in stealth mode, hiding in the dark web."
Cathie asked, "Stealth mode, dark web?"
"Yes. Dark web is part of dark net, encrypted, and not easily accessible to everyone. The websites in the dark web can hide their identity and run secretly. We need special software to access these kinds of sites in the dark web. We need to take help from an expert hacker if we have to get more details. I have called and asked Mr. Cherry, alias Charith, to join us in this operation. He is a professional hacker and has helped us in solving many cybercrime cases."
"I have heard about him many times on TV. Is this the guy who cracked the mystery behind the sale of household items without the owner's involvement?" asked Sekhar.
"Correct. Cherry solved the mystery. Last year, across Mumbai and Bangalore many people
came and complained to the police department that they did not sell any of their household items but people approached them saying they were sold. Owners stated that some outsiders approached them and stated that they had sold so and so item (like refrigerator) on the Internet. These people claimed to have paid the money and had come to get their purchases. But in reality, none of the owners neither put them for sale on the Internet, nor had they sold them. Our investigation department tried all possible ways to resolve the case, but couldn't find any clues. Then, they took help from Cherry who cracked this case in a day. Cherry found that all those who had complained to the police had closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV camera) inside and outside their houses. A hacker got access to all these CCTV cameras. He took a picture of all the costly household items inside the house or apartments and put them for sale with the exact address and location coordinates. People who wanted to buy, verified the address details and other stuff and found them genuine, so they purchased those items online and later went on to recover them. The rest was known to everyone, there was chaos everywhere. Finally, the police department caught hold of the hacker with Cherry's help and arrested him." I finished.
"When is he expected here?" asked Cathie.
"Cherry will reach Hyderabad tomorrow. Right now, he is in Mumbai, helping the police over there to solve a drug trafficking case that is happening over the Internet." I replied and asked Cathie, "Any clues with respect to the drugs administered to the victims?"
"The combination of drugs appears to be normal, but if we start looking into the composition, amount being administered at times is unusual. Doctors usually change the dosage when patients complain of any side effects or reactions. But the medical history of any of these victims didn't show any indications of reactions or side effects. This appears to be a little questionable in this whole scenario. We need to find out who changed the dosage and why or what made them do so?" concluded Cathie.
"So, Cathie, you mean to say, without a reason the dosage had been changed and that is what caused the death of all the victims?" asked Sekhar.
"No. The over dosage didn't cause immediate death. The dose change would have an immense effect on vital organs like brain, nerves, kidneys and rest of the organs. The dosage change has been slowly damaging the brain of all these victims and the last normal dosage took the damage to such a dangerous point that they died."
"So, they were struggling both psychologically as well as physically, and died." I asked both of them.
They both were silent and didn't respond. I understand them, they both were extraordinary in their profession and they imagined and identified how much pain the victims underwent before they died.
"I have asked the narcotics division for a detailed investigation and we will get more detailed information on the drugs and the dosage, which will give pin-pointed information with time, date on which high dosage was administered," informed Cathie.
They both left and I continued looking at Jennifer's profile and activity. I felt that she was slowly made to believe what the cult group said was correct and finally she got convinced by what was being said. I don't think it is done simply over a social networking platform. There is some other point of influence and we need to identify what it is.
Cherry arrived, "What am I going to deal with, Jai?"
"Cherry, I need your help in cracking a case, with some clues I found that a cult group is involved in this. I found its traces, but couldn't
explore further. Apart from these, there are some missing links in other cases where I need your help." I told Cherry.