It was the evening when celebrations were in full swing to mark the end of a long , tiring journey of being the judge of supreme court and starting of a fresh, comparatively sedate one for Mr. Arun Sanyal. 28 years at the helm had not only made his hairline recede but also thought him a thing or two about life and human nature. Sipping wine at the pool side Mr. Arun was engrossed in talks about "what next"? with his close friends , just when a petite young girl in the group popped up a question.
"In all this years, you must have been through cases which were not as straight forward as they seemed. Do you remember any such case ? "
What followed next as the reply not only baffled all people there, but it also left people astounded with the complications of a bizarre death.
Mr Arun started recalling each and every detail of the case.
On April 14, 1984 the medical examiner viewed the body of Shekhar Singh and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.
Mr. Singh had jumped from the top of a thirteen story building with the intention of committing suicide. He had also left behind a note to the effect indicating his utter sadness and having no resolution of living.However, as he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly.
Further on.... neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been installed by the building constructors just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers carrying out repair works. Hence, had he not been shot, Mr. Singh would not have died as per his plans, would have be injured at the maximum, but not died.
"Technically," Mr Sanyal continued, "A person, who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the way in which it is achieved might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide." That Mr. Singh was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide in his hands and not a suicide case.
Further investigations revealed that in the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast originated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun.
On that particular day, the man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the bullets went through the window, striking Mr. Singh who happened to jump at the same instance. When someone intends to kill person "A" but kills person "B" in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of person "B".
When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was a long-standing habit of his to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her.
Therefore the killing of Mr. Singh appeared to be an accident; that is, if the gun had been accidentally loaded. The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident.
It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the habit of his father to threaten his mother with the use of shotgun,loaded the gun. It was an ideal plan on the son's part wherein he can get revenge from his mother and also be not caught. In the course of the case, it transpires that since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger.
The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Shekhar Singh.
Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Shekhar Singh. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the thirteen-story building on April 14th, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself, so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide ......
How interesting it could get ? :).
Update: As pointed out by my friend, this is an indianized version of a story. Link to the original one shortly. Or look at comment sections if i get lazy to point it out here
