MAXWELL PEREIRA--TANDOOR  MURDER

                                                                            

The Tandoor Murder  by Maxwell Pereira; Published by Context;  Pages 290; Price: Rs 599/-

                          

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This is a murder story  told so attractively that you cannot put down the book.  The tale in brief. Sushil Sharma ,Congress big-wig ,objected to his wife Naina Sahni's friendship with Matloob Karim. Matloob and Naina were classmates and fellow Congress workers. Sushil suspected Naina of having an extramarital relationship with Matloob. On the night of 2 July 1995, Sushil came home and saw Naina talking on the phone and consuming alcohol. Naina, on seeing Sushil, hung up. Sushil redialled the phone to find Matloob on the other end. Enraged, he fatally shot Naina. He took the body to a “Bagiya” a  restaurant  and tried to dispose it off with the restaurant manager, Keshav Kumar. The body was chopped into pieces and put in a tandoor to burn. Police arrested Keshav Kumar but Sharma escaped . He surrendered on 10 July 1995. The case also involved the use of DNA evidence to establish the identity of the victim.

The victim’s  body was found half-burnt in a tandoor in Delhi by one of the night patrol officers, and her husband, Sushil Sharma, who even though confessed to the crime, managed to stave off conviction for more than a decade. The  accused, Sushil Sharma,  was Naina’s partner and Youth Congress leader. More than a corkscrew was  the twists and turns in the case .  Maxwell Pereira, who was the ACP  in charge of the case, gives us an insider’s account of events as they unfolded, based on his notes and investigation reports as well as the many stories that appeared in the media.

It is a  page-turner of a book, forthright and dramatic, with unexpected nuggets of information and insights into the way policing and the legal and political systems work in India by someone whose life was spent in policing.

 The country’s conscience  was shaken in 1995 and the criminal and justice system got quite a jolt.

The book offers a ringside view of the grisly case. It had everything: a powerful politician (Sushil Sharma), his attractive wife (Naina), passion, jealousy and a burnt body in a hotel. Sharma had coolly asked for Amul butter to make the body burn faster. The corpse was a horrifying sight. The face wore “a blank horrific grin”, the teeth were exposed, and some bones were retrieved from the ashes of the tandoor.

It is not common to encounter Reminiscences of Indian police officers. Pereira who is a familiar face on  T V has produced a  thorough, chilling and candid story of the “Tandoor Murder” .He has a voice, at once literally and figuratively. He is present virtually  in every page of the thriller. He  is  woken up rudely at 1am by the shrill ring of the telephone—”a flattish, cherry-red instrument which sat malevolently’’ by his bedside. You are entranced and as he says  “It is not a thriller ,; “It is real life.”

Pereira is both  kind and emphatic. “Detached,” is how he  describes   Naina’s parents  .They refused to accept the remains.... We did everything that we could do. Yet, the parents would not say that it was Naina. The family would say, “Bring Sushil Sharma here. Let him say that it is she”

The participants leap out of the book in flesh and blood. Take the constable –from whim the story starts---Abdul Nazeer Kunju who “expected to spend the evening with his wife and three-day-old daughter, but.... would have to handle the overnight beat” and the Commissioner of Police Nikhil Kumar who had a “knack of piercing one’s ego with a few crisp questions”. Pereira is masterly in etching his characters.

Pereira recounts the progress of the case-- how Sushil Kumar and Naina Sahini’s flat was found, how Sushil was  hunted  down and captured  in Bengaluru. The trial was far from simple. “They wanted me off the case,” he says.

The ACP  has the knack of writing like  Agatha Christie and does not allow his story to lose the pace even by a minute—he has mastered the craft of good writing and makes it  gripping and credible. Though the attempt to dispose of the body is grisly Pereira manages to make the tale eminently readable.  “Tandoor Murder” is truly  spine chilling .

Pereira's insider account of the case, his notes and memories become the soul and life of this book. "I had the manuscript already worked 20 years ago," says the author. "The book is the result of notes I recorded and wrote over the two years of 1995-96 but ended up holding back for the next 18 long years till the final verdict in the Supreme Court. It was done purely in the interest of successful prosecution and especially for fear of the accused possibly using my writings in his defence to his advantage - by introducing elements of doubt or claims of procedural lapses."

Pereira comes across as utterly careful ,totally honest and forthright. According to him these qualities are  important when you are assigned a case with strong political backing . "Once you resist the pressure around you, no one will dare to trouble you. That is what my Senior once told me," he says adding, "When I see the plight of cases like the Mecca Masjid blast and Aarushi Talwar, I wish for the old days."

Pereira fills the book with lesser known details of what is perhaps the goriest murder in Indian history. Sushil Sharma's manipulative nature and his tendency to change statements every now and then, the murder aide Keshav's visit to Pereira after his sentence and so on, not to mention the media frenzy around the case then. "I had to go back to the manuscript and make a lot of changes. The trial intrigues had to be included, the tenses had to be changed. I used to call the officer in charge till 2004 to get regular updates on the case,"

Pereira’s advice to all officers is  “to never get emotional with your work. The crime scenes do make me uncomfortable, but as long as you haven't committed the murder, there is nothing to get worked up about."

Pereira's character sketches of both Naina and Sushil are comprehensive. "Most of it is through Matloob Karim, the alleged lover of Naina Sahni. He gave 164 statements. Sushil was elusive and Naina's parents did not cooperate. It was through Karim that we got to know them, and from neighbours who had a very high opinion of Sushil. That is how we knew he led a double life," says Pereira.

The tricky part of the case, according to Pereira, was evidence gathering. "We had a confession early on. It was all about finding evidence that could seal the case. That is what many officers now fail to do. They just rely on confession. Use the confession for your satisfaction, but without corroborative evidence you cannot close a case."

In fine, Pereira has produced a first-rate , fast paced “thriller ”.

P.P.Ramachandran.

11/08/2019.