9 A.M : I woke up startled by the loud ringtone of my cellphone. Its my boss Ashok calling. "Hey Shreya get up yaar. Did you firget that you have to go to the Alipore Jail today?" I horrified at his words, fumbled"Jail? Why? I havent done anything. Is there a policeman standing outside my house? Oh come on Ashok you are handing me over to police for coming late to office?" Ashok roared with laughter " Good suggestion Shreya. Probably I would propose this to be added in out Indian law, in the next article I write for our weekly magazine. Now get up and get ready. You have to interview a jail inmate. I will text you the details." I breathed a sign of relief. Thank God he is not sending me to jail.
Beep beep. Here's his whatsapp message about the details of today's interview:
Name: Sangita Roy
Occupation: Worked in a private firm
Age: 28
Accused of: Cold blooded murder of her husband, who was paralyzed, just for few thousands bucks
My mood went bitter. Come on ! cant I interview some nice personalities? Some rich and famous? This should be my first and last. Next time I will raise a red card if he assigns me with these kind of horrible interviews.
11 A.M: Reached Alipore Jail. Asked permission from the Jail superintendent for the interview. The middle aged man with a pot belly and big mustache scanned my permission letter and allowed me a 30 mins to interview the accused.
11:20 A.M: As I sat on a bench with my paper and pen ready, waiting for some horrible murder accused to be with me, I am surprised to see a very decent looking girl approaching me guarded by a lady constable.
"Hello I am Shreya Banerjee from 'India's Outlook' weekly magazine. I have come to ask you few questions about your case. This will be one of the articles of our upcoming issue."
To this Sangita replied:" Oh, I know about your magazine. I initially worked for my internship there. I was a Mass Communication student. Wanted to be a journalist. But ended up being something else."
I was taken aback. She seems well educated. Then how come she is a murderer. I restrained myself from showing any emotions.
Me:" Well, tell me then how did you end up in Jail."
Sangita: " Because I killed my husband."
Me: "And why is that so?"
Sangita: "Because we live in a country where Euthanasia is not allowed."
Me: "Start from beginning."
Sangita: "I was a Post Graduate student in Mass Communication at a reputed Govt college, aspiring journalist. He was my batch mate. We were not lovers but yes he had falled for me. I knowingly kept him aside prioritizing my career first.We had many political rallies at our college. You know what govt colleges are like.
In one of the political rallies we students from our dept took a very active part. I was one of the leaders. Despite severe hindrance from my pessimist friend Soham(who later became my husband), I was enthusiatic enough to lead my ideologies against the govt. In that rally police raf was called by the college authorities and they started beating us like anything. I was saved by Soham from getting a massive blow but instead it hit him badly in his head. He felt unconscious and started bleeding. There was chaos all around and students were shoved into police van. In the midst of the chaos and cries I took help of other students and quietly made my way out dragging unconscious Soham. They hurdled me into a taxi and I immediately took him to a hospital. It was after 3 days that Soham gained consciousness. Doctor confirmed me that the impact of the blow was so severe that a part of his brain has been damaged. He will never be able to lead a normal life and will be a vegetable for ever depending on life support system. And now I was being blamed by Soham's parents as well as mine. I decided to marry him. I left college and started working at a private firm. We stayed in a lil rented apartment.
Life started moving but Soham was not happy. He didnt want to live. Everyday he used to cry in pain and wanted to take his life, which I always prevented. One day unknowingly he wrote a letter to the CM seeking permission for euthanasia. The CM's reply was negative as it is against the law. We received a cheque of 10k instead, a very meager amount to continue life.
Soham was getting restless day by day. One day I had to give in to his request. I had to switch off his life support system. And then......"
There was a long pause.
Me:" Why didnt you tell the truth in the court?"
Sanguta smiled :" I told you na. Euthanasia against our judiciary system."
1 P.M: I went back to my office with a heavy heart thinking how to put it as an article so that justice can be done.
Beep beep. Here's his whatsapp message about the details of today's interview:
Name: Sangita Roy
Occupation: Worked in a private firm
Age: 28
Accused of: Cold blooded murder of her husband, who was paralyzed, just for few thousands bucks
My mood went bitter. Come on ! cant I interview some nice personalities? Some rich and famous? This should be my first and last. Next time I will raise a red card if he assigns me with these kind of horrible interviews.
11 A.M: Reached Alipore Jail. Asked permission from the Jail superintendent for the interview. The middle aged man with a pot belly and big mustache scanned my permission letter and allowed me a 30 mins to interview the accused.
11:20 A.M: As I sat on a bench with my paper and pen ready, waiting for some horrible murder accused to be with me, I am surprised to see a very decent looking girl approaching me guarded by a lady constable.
"Hello I am Shreya Banerjee from 'India's Outlook' weekly magazine. I have come to ask you few questions about your case. This will be one of the articles of our upcoming issue."
To this Sangita replied:" Oh, I know about your magazine. I initially worked for my internship there. I was a Mass Communication student. Wanted to be a journalist. But ended up being something else."
I was taken aback. She seems well educated. Then how come she is a murderer. I restrained myself from showing any emotions.
Me:" Well, tell me then how did you end up in Jail."
Sangita: " Because I killed my husband."
Me: "And why is that so?"
Sangita: "Because we live in a country where Euthanasia is not allowed."
Me: "Start from beginning."
Sangita: "I was a Post Graduate student in Mass Communication at a reputed Govt college, aspiring journalist. He was my batch mate. We were not lovers but yes he had falled for me. I knowingly kept him aside prioritizing my career first.We had many political rallies at our college. You know what govt colleges are like.
In one of the political rallies we students from our dept took a very active part. I was one of the leaders. Despite severe hindrance from my pessimist friend Soham(who later became my husband), I was enthusiatic enough to lead my ideologies against the govt. In that rally police raf was called by the college authorities and they started beating us like anything. I was saved by Soham from getting a massive blow but instead it hit him badly in his head. He felt unconscious and started bleeding. There was chaos all around and students were shoved into police van. In the midst of the chaos and cries I took help of other students and quietly made my way out dragging unconscious Soham. They hurdled me into a taxi and I immediately took him to a hospital. It was after 3 days that Soham gained consciousness. Doctor confirmed me that the impact of the blow was so severe that a part of his brain has been damaged. He will never be able to lead a normal life and will be a vegetable for ever depending on life support system. And now I was being blamed by Soham's parents as well as mine. I decided to marry him. I left college and started working at a private firm. We stayed in a lil rented apartment.
Life started moving but Soham was not happy. He didnt want to live. Everyday he used to cry in pain and wanted to take his life, which I always prevented. One day unknowingly he wrote a letter to the CM seeking permission for euthanasia. The CM's reply was negative as it is against the law. We received a cheque of 10k instead, a very meager amount to continue life.
Soham was getting restless day by day. One day I had to give in to his request. I had to switch off his life support system. And then......"
There was a long pause.
Me:" Why didnt you tell the truth in the court?"
Sanguta smiled :" I told you na. Euthanasia against our judiciary system."
1 P.M: I went back to my office with a heavy heart thinking how to put it as an article so that justice can be done.
No comments:
Post a Comment