The Day of the Scorpion (40 page)

‘I’m not saying what I gathered, only what was said to me.’

‘Are you saying that what was said to you accounted for what is described as your distress?’

‘I don’t know what he meant by distress.’

Gopal said: ‘Then how would
you
describe your demeanour at this stage of your interview at police headquarters?’

Kumar looked down at the table. Presently he said, ‘I was shivering. It would have been noticeable.’

‘Shivering?’

‘The interview was in a private room in the basement. It was air-conditioned.’

‘This room is air-conditioned. You are not shivering now, are you?’

‘No.’

‘Why were you shivering on that occasion?’

‘I had no clothes on. I had had no clothes on for nearly an hour.’

‘No clothes?’ Gopal asked. ‘You were asked questions by a police officer in a state of undress?’

She was observing the hollow-cheeked face intently. A tremor passed over it. It might have been a smile.

‘The police officer who asked the questions was fully dressed,’ Kumar said. ‘But I was naked.’

‘That is what I said,’ Gopal snapped. ‘Why were you naked?’

‘I had been stripped. My clothes were piled on the table.’

‘I meant for what purpose were you stripped?’

‘Originally for inspection I believe.’

‘A physical examination?’

‘Inspection would be more accurate. There was no doctor present.’

‘Gopal said, ‘No doctor? Then who carried out the examination?’

‘The District Superintendent.’

Gopal hesitated, then said, ‘What kind of examination was it?’

‘An inspection of my genitals. Doesn’t it say so in the reports? He inspected my genitals for signs of blood.’

‘Did he tell you that?’

‘No. But it was obvious.’

‘How?’

‘When he’d finished he said: “So you’ve been intelligent enough to wash, we almost caught you at it, didn’t we?” Later he said: “Well, she wasn’t a virgin, was she, and you were the first to ram her?” So it was obvious the inquiry was about a woman who’d been assaulted.’

Captain Rowan interrupted: ‘All this is, in a sense, irrelevant to the purpose of the inquiry. I should like to return to the main line of questioning,’ but Gopal shook his head and said:

‘All this is most important. It has a direct bearing on the detenu’s statement that he was not immediately informed of the reason for being in custody and a direct bearing on the question of his distress as recorded. The impression I am getting here is that the physical examination and the
references to other physical matters occurred before 22.45 hours. Hitherto the official suggestion has been that until then questions were asked in an ordinary line of interrogation and not answered and then at 22.45 hours the detenu was told the reason for the inquiries, appeared to incriminate himself by naming the woman and then showed signs of distress.’

‘Perhaps,’ Captain Rowan began, but she had pressed the button under the chair arm. The green light flicked on. Captain Rowan lifted his receiver as she lifted hers.

‘Hello: Rowan here—’

‘I have a question to ask – and something to say—’

‘Oh, yes.’

‘Does Mr Gopal know I’m listening? He glanced up at the grille when he came into the room.’

Rowan waited before replying, as if his caller had asked a longer question.

‘The answer to that – the official answer – is no. But in that particular case I’m not sure. I’m in the middle of an examination. Is it urgent?’

‘What I wanted to say is forget that I am here. You have your job to do. I don’t want you to worry about trying to spare me from hearing unpleasant things.’

‘Very well. I’ll attend to it.’

‘One other thing—’

‘Yes?’

‘Does Mr Kumar know that my niece is dead?’

‘I’m not sure.’

‘I should like to be sure.’

‘Very well, and thank you. Goodbye.’

For a while after he put the telephone back on its rest no sound came through the speaker other than the slight rustle of paper. Then he spoke.

‘Since we’ve had an interruption I think this is a suitable moment to break the examination off for five minutes.’ He slapped the file shut. ‘Babuji – tell the guard to hold the prisoner outside.’

The clerk got up and went to the door through which Kumar had entered, opened it and spoke to the guard. Kumar
glanced round. His movements suggested that he had not clearly understood what Rowan said.

‘We shall call you back,’ Rowan told him. Kumar stood up.

‘In about five minutes we shall continue the examination.’

It was extraordinary, she thought. When he stood he gave the appearance of a shambling man – one who might not be expected to think clearly or speak precisely. He ducked his head, then turned. The guard had appeared and now accompanied him out. The clerk also went out – closing the door behind him, leaving Rowan and Gopal alone.

Rowan said, ‘Let’s use these few minutes to consider really what our terms of reference are. If I may say so these questions about his interrogation by District Superintendent Merrick in regard to the criminal assault tend to lead away from the main point about his association with a group of fellows who were clearly politically committed and politically involved—’

‘I’m sorry to disagree with you, Captain Rowan. Perhaps I have had less time than you to study the files of this curious case, and it is most unusual for a detenu to be examined, in fact I have never come across it before, neither has my superior. I have assumed that since His Excellency personally ordered the examination some serious doubt has arisen about the order for detention. From my reading of the files – coupled with my recollections of the actual circumstances – I feel that the order rested entirely on the original suspicion this young man was under in regard to the criminal assault. For that reason I feel that the criminal assault aspect should now become the focus for our questions. It would have been useful if you had agreed to a previous consultation, but my clerk told me you were unable to find the time.’

‘Well let me put it to you that the man was never charged with criminal assault although I agree the assault was the original cause of his arrest. He seems on the other hand to have been known to the police as a man to keep an eye on over anti-government activities of a seditious nature—’

‘– on the frailest evidence, in my opinion—’

‘Well, that’s really what we’re out to examine. I think the situation here is that at the
time
of his detention the circumstantial evidence of his implication in the assault was
so strong that neither the Deputy Commissioner nor the Commissioner felt it reasonable to set him free—’

‘– and used this ridiculous evidence of a connection with subversive elements as an excuse to imprison him without trial.’

‘One has to consider the affair in the context of the time and circumstances. If the detention order was unjustly made we have the opportunity of seeing that now in clearer perspective. What we’re not out to do is apportion blame among the several authorities who had the difficult job of investigating at the time. I am strongly against a line of questioning that can help the man to level accusations against particular officials. It will only confuse the issue from H.E.’s point of view. Kumar isn’t under oath and the officials aren’t here to answer. The man himself has never petitioned against the order and there’s some cause to think he may have counted himself extremely lucky to get away with simple political detention.’

‘Who has petitioned, then?’

‘No one. No one can except the man in question.’

‘Then why has H.E. suddenly ordered an examination?’

‘I think chiefly as a result of private pleas – for instance by his relative – his aunt, Shalini Gupta Sen.’

‘And perhaps by the late Miss Manners’s aunt – Lady Manners? She, surely, must eventually have learned the truth?’

‘That I wouldn’t know,’ Rowan said.

‘I thought perhaps new evidence had come up and that the examination might be a preliminary to other proceedings.’

‘Not to my knowledge.’

‘Are the other five men to be examined?’

‘I have no instructions. And their cases were different. They denied the criminal assault but never denied subversive political activity, even if they denied being engaged in such activities on the night in question which they said they’d spent drinking in a hut on some waste ground close to the Bibighar.’

‘But Kumar did deny subversive activity—’

‘According to the file his answer to every question was: “I have nothing to say”.’

‘It is somewhat different this morning, isn’t it?’

‘This morning he is not under suspicion of criminal assault. Which brings me back to the point. In my opinion the line of questioning should be confined as nearly as possible to facts bearing on the ostensible reasons for his
detention
– detention as distinct from arrest. The criminal assault is a dead file. The girl herself is dead. If she was intent on protecting him – for emotional reasons, as was thought at the time – we shall never know. A line of questioning that concentrates on facts relating to the assault and on the details of his arrest on suspicion of being guilty of rape can only be abortive, I believe.’

‘I disagree. If there had been no rape he would never have been arrested. It is clear he was arrested only because he was known to consort with her. It has always been clear, Captain Rowan, if you will forgive my saying so, that Kumar was victimized by the British authorities in Mayapore for his association with a white girl. It is common knowledge.’

‘Common knowledge isn’t evidence. We must base our inquiries on the evidence in this file.’

‘The evidence is worthless to a large extent, Captain Rowan. You have only to read it to see it is all too – what is the word you use?’

‘Pat?’

‘All too pat. Rigged. The girl knew what would happen. The record of her private examination before the District Judge and the Assistant Commissioner makes it perfectly clear that the case could never have come to trial with the six men who’d been arrested because one minute of her evidence in the witness-box would have killed the case for the prosecution stone dead. She remembered her attackers as men of the badmash-type – men who’d probably come in from the villages because of the rumours of riot and the prospect of loot.’

‘Perhaps, but I think the prosecution might have built a lot on her
first
statement to the Assistant Commissioner, that it had been too dark to see who they were. It’s clear to me that the case never came to trial for two
reasons – firstly that the evidence against the arrested men was wholly circumstantial and secondly that the girl – presumably for emotional reasons – was obviously prepared – even to the extent of perjury – to explode the case in everyone’s face if they attempted to bring it into court. As you will have read in the file, she even threatened to suggest her attackers could have been British soldiers with their faces blacked. It was never a serious suggestion but you can imagine what effect her making it, even as a joke, would have had on a jury. She could never have killed the case for the prosecution but with the chief witness working against the prosecution it’s most likely that their case could have been proved.’

‘And so the men would have gone free, Captain Rowan. The detention orders were made to ensure that never happened. The whole thing stank, Captain Rowan. You know it, I know it. H.E. knows it. That young man was as much a threat to the defence of India as I am. His only crime was to have been the friend of a white girl who got raped by a gang of hooligans or looters. What can we possibly turn up now that will shed any positive light at all on his political ideas and activities? The evidence on this file that attempts to point to political affiliations is laughable. I hardly see how one can even begin to frame viable questions from it. I will say frankly, Captain Rowan, that if we are to put this poor fellow through this examination we must give him every chance to tell us exactly what happened and not bother our heads about what it will look like on paper or what muck might be raked. I did not ask to be appointed one of his examiners, but since I am one I intend to examine and not be blinkered by any narrow interpretations of terms of reference that leave the record not worth the paper it’s written on. Frankly I do not care anything about confusing H.E. with details about the assault. Once the examination is over we are both personally powerless to take any step or press for any step we think is justified. I shan’t be surprised if the record simply goes on file and is conveniently forgotten and that poor fellow who may be having his hopes raised has them dashed again. But we are not powerless to pave the way for a justified step to be taken. Forgive me. I am perhaps overheated.’

As if by an association of ideas Gopal lifted the tumbler from one of the carafes and poured himself a glass of water.
He sipped it delicately, then patted his lips with a folded handkerchief from his breast pocket.

‘Very well, but if it’s H.E.’s intention to review the detention order an examination that weighs heavily on the side of questions relating to the criminal assault may have a contrary effect. He may throw the record out as irrelevant. And of course you do realize that the examination might give grounds for renewed suspicion that the assault was an aspect of subversive activities plotted and executed by Kumar and others? You speak as if there was no evidence implicating Kumar in the rape. He was absent from home at the relevant time, never accounted for his movements and was bathing cuts and abrasions on his face when the police arrested him.’

‘So the police record states. The first police report – the one signed by a sub-inspector – also mentioned that the girl’s bicycle was found in the ditch outside Kumar’s home. The second report, by the District Superintendent, dated one or two days later, states that this was an error and that the bicycle was found at the scene of the rape, in the Bibighar Gardens, and put in the back of the truck before the visit to Kumar’s home. Which smells to me like an abortive attempt to plant evidence which the District Superintendent later realized wasn’t going to wash. I personally have no faith whatsoever in the statements to the effect that Kumar was bathing his face when arrested. If Kumar’s face was cut and bruised it was just as likely because the police hit him.’