The soothing words from his mother acted like a healing balm on Arjun's wounds—the deep gash inflicted by the frenzied mob, and the fresh, searing cut delivered by Raghav that had shattered him from within.Raghav, the man who until just days ago had been nurturing a budding romance with a girl, planning a future that led all the way to marriage, had suddenly suspended the proposal and put their entire relationship on hold after the incident.
The additional burden had fallen heavily, unwillingly, upon Arjun. The bubbly, fair-skinned beauty who was in love with an Army Captain could never imagine spending her life with a mere Agniveer. When one considered rank, prestige, and family background, Arjun was nowhere near Raghav's equal.
Moreover, Shreya had a mind of her own; he was not her chosen groom. And Arjun himself was in love with another girl—a girl he had longed to marry."If you fall apart like this, what will happen to Kavya?" his mother asked gently.
At the mention of Kavya's name, Arjun froze, stunned. Tears welled up in his eyes as he looked at his mother. Slowly, he wiped his moist eyes with the back of his hand and whispered, "How did you find out?"
"I am your mother, after all. I can read every expression on my children's faces.""After all this, she will distance herself from me, Ma," he said, and then broke down into uncontrollable sobs.
"How will I ever convince her of my innocence? She might think I've been toying with the lives of two girls. She may even brand me a player and push me out of her life forever."
Time passed. Since the incident, Arjun had come home on leave only once—for a week—when the tragedy unfolded. People often asked him,
"How is married life treating you after the wedding?"
Arjun would smile politely and reply, "Our relationship is very good. It is filled with mutual understanding and trust. Nothing has been forced upon us. We respect each other deeply, and perhaps that is the most essential thing required to sustain any relationship."
They had decided to live under the same roof, but not as husband and wife. Sharing a house did not mean they had accepted the marital bond. It was merely a compromise forced upon them by circumstances. Even though they stayed together for those few days, neither made any effort to befriend the other. Perhaps they did not even wish to.
Arjun's leave came to an end. He had to return to duty. He had barely been given any time to establish harmony at home. He knew the situation awaiting him there would be equally hostile. Earlier, he had commanded respect among his fellow soldiers; now that atmosphere was gone.
Just as Arjun had feared, he was now met with indifference and disdain from his comrades. No one spoke to him the way they once had. His former image had been tarnished beyond repair. He could not share his pain with anyone.
Raghav, in particular, tormented him in subtle ways. Several times Arjun felt like quietly abandoning everything and running away, but the thought of his mother and Ranjana made his heart and mind tremble with dread.
Sometimes it seemed as if his destiny held nothing but the bitter draught of disgrace and humiliation.
Sometimes punishment is not merely a formal court order written on paper. It is also the judgment of society, the fire of rumours, and the blows dealt by human relationships. Behind the punishment of an innocent man lie many layers: haste, false testimony, corruption, and the cruelty of society itself.In many cases, court hearings drag on for years. If bail is denied, innocent people rot in jail for years on end.
Some cases see no verdict even after a decade. By then the person may have been proven innocent, but his life is already destroyed—job gone, reputation in tatters, nothing left to salvage.
One day, Madhav Kaka pointed to a convict named Shekhar Rajput and said, "He has already served ten years in prison for the murder of his wife."Yet the real culprit was the law itself.
Two years earlier, Shekhar had been granted parole to attend his father's last rites. While travelling by train, he suddenly saw his supposedly dead wife sitting right in front of him with her second husband and their eight-year-old son. Unable to contain his rage, he had taken revenge for the betrayal by throwing his unfaithful wife out of the moving train. Now he was serving time for this fresh crime of murder. Earlier, when he was innocent, he used to weep just like Arjun, unable to adapt to the harsh realities of prison life. But since his return this time, he seemed remarkably content. There was no trace of shame or regret on his face for what he had done."When I had committed no crime, I endured ten years of torture," Shekhar would say. "This time I am truly guilty, yet I am at peace because my revenge is complete. I have no remorse left."
He would add softly, "Madhav Kaka, there is nothing left for me in the outside world anymore. As long as my father was alive, he kept trying to prove my innocence, and I too wanted to prove it—for my family's sake, I wanted to live. In those ten years I lost both my parents. Now I have lost everything. This time I am guilty, and these four walls have begun to feel like home."The last time he was arrested, Shekhar had no solid proof of his innocence, so he could not clear his name.
Moreover, for the past two years his old file had mysteriously gone missing and was never updated. Madhav Kaka had once seen the same pain in Shekhar's eyes that he now saw in Arjun's.
"You never told me your full story," Madhav Kaka continued. "I only know what was reported in the news. But I can read people. Your restlessness, your sighs, and your eyes tell me that you are innocent."
© Copyright Pushpa Chaturvedi
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