Chapter Two : Inside the missing man's details

                             

Aditya Ganguly was a very influential man of his times. He had come to Bairang in the late 80's as a raw coal supplier to work at the thermal plant which was operating newly. It needed resources to increase its capacity to produce electricity. As the entire belt had only one plant, hence the livelihood of an entire area and the need for electricity was totally dependent on it. Hence the plant authorities were also looking for competent and tactful people who could arrange resources swiftly. Aditya Ganguly was one of their best men. He devised mechanisms in tender distribution systems which would help the company ensure large supplies of coal pumping into their system. The plant started to increase its capacity to produce electricity more and more very fastly. In nick of time, Aditya became a very known face in the entire region and had developed network and contacts with the local administration, the police, government authorities and coal mining big bosses. He was the face of the plant and everything coming into the plant used to go through him. He also attracted major investments from foreign nations too. He toured over places in Namibia, Zimbabwe and few other African countries showing the company's upward business to various businessmen and many of them invested a lot of money into the plant and bought many coal mines in the region. The company's revenue and profit was soaring high and it was about time the company gifted Aditya something big.

A view of the Jungle behind Aditya's house

Just around 4 kilometres from the plant, there were houses which were developed for the various executives who were working in the plant. In that vicinity itself, the company bought an area of 2 acres from the government and gifted it to Aditya. Aditya built a magnificent villa with white themed paintings and introduced a very different architecture. He had bought artifacts from Namibia and other African countries and he put everything to display at his house. Surrounding his house, he built a big garden cultivating major fruits, vegetables. One could see the vast expanse of the grass all around the house. It was like a dream for everyone in Bairang to  build a house as magnificent like this. Locals flocked to his house to see this rare beauty. It was just like a river flowing from a big height surrounded by greenery mesmerizing everyone to their imaginations.Within seven years of his stay at Bairang, Aditya had established all of this in a very short span of time. His rise to fame had also irked many people in the area.

Somewhere in August of 1987, the news of his marriage came out. He was getting married on October 10th, 1987 to a beautiful Bengali girl, who had finished her masters in Biochemistry from Jadavpur University, Calcutta. The wedding took place in Calcutta, at the girl's place with customary Bengali traditions. Following the wedding, a big fat wedding reception was held at Bairang. The whole town of Bairang was lit up like a big fair with florescent lights lighting up the entire town. Colorful ribbons, big lavish curtains were drawn throughout the pathway leading upto the convention hall where the reception was being held. On the food menu, twenty seven types of dishes, starters comprising of baked pakodas, Indian street food delicacies and mouth watering sumptuous desserts were served. In addition to that, barbeque was also in order, preparing smoked delicacies served with alcohol beverages. The reception was attended by a record 600 people, a first in that time. The guest list also included ministers of the state government, industrialists and all the top level corporate team of the plant who attended to witness this terrific event immersed in so many magical colors.

The nested complex wild greenery around the house

Just two weeks after the wedding reception, the religious festival of Durga Puja came up. Many people traveled to their hometown to celebrate this festival for a period of five days. Aditya's wife was also travelling to her hometown. In the evening train, she left for her hometown. But Aditya decided to stay back at Bairang itself as some work was pending and his involvement was needed to finish it off. Three days later, post his dinner, Aditya stepped out for his usual walk in the vicinity of his house.To the house staff, it was a usual affair for their owner. But when the time crossed past 11 at night, all started worrying where he went. The security guard at the house started panting up and down the streets to look for his master. The locality guard was sleeping when he went to ask if he had seen Aditya anywhere. After quite a manhunt in the local area searching for Aditya throughout the night, the matter was reported to the police in the early hours of the next morning. The news of Aditya missing from his house spread like a wild forest fire in the entire town of Bairang. Everyone was shell shocked from within to hear this news. The police team started searching in the nearby forest areas in case any wild animal had attacked and he may have got injured and lying unconscious. Nor was any trace of his cloth, or his blood could be discovered anywhere in the forest areas which could give them any clue of what had really transpired in the night. Since the matter was a highly important one, the police started closing on all possible outcomes. Kidnapping, murder, suicide, they had to take in all possibilities. They collaborated with the local dam officials, to find out if any body had floated and came out, if Aditya had thought of committing suicide by jumping into the nearby river. Two days had passed by, no one had passed any information of any possible kidnapping of Aditya. The state department got involved, with the criminal investigation department launching a full fledged investigation from starting to extract every single minute detail.

"All this was confusing to everyone whoever was present in Bairang during that time. But the mystery got more intriguing when one more news changed the entire narration of the incident.", said Appu's uncle narrating to Appu and his sister the entire story of Aditya Ganguly."The criminal department decided to reach out to Aditya's wife and his family for telling the news. The house staff had seen Aditya and his wife leaving the house when Aditya went to drop his wife to the railway station two days before. But upon investigation, the police found out that no ticket was booked on Aditya's wife name to Calcutta or anywhere else. The train to Calcutta was at 10 pm and at the station also nobody recalled seeing the husband wife pair there. The local police contacted the Calcutta police immediately. They investigated and and informed to the local police that Aditya's wife had not reached Calcutta only.The girl's parents told that they did not have any prior information that their daughter was coming to their home. It was now time for the police to change direction and modify in their official records from "one" person missing to "two."

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