THE LEDGER
CHAPTER 14 & 15 — THE INVESTIGATION / THE LOOKOUT NOTICE
The next morning...
When the city woke up, police vehicles surrounded the old building.
Within the first few hours, it became clear that what had happened during the night was not an ordinary murder.
Because...
the man who had been killed was not an ordinary man.
As news of his death spread, phone calls began pouring into political offices.
Party leaders started holding discussions.
Local leaders began calling their supporters.
Old rivalries once again became the subject of political conversations.
One side said,
“This was a political assassination.”
Another said,
“This is the continuation of an old personal rivalry.”
Someone else claimed,
“There is a major criminal network behind this.”
But...
nobody had any real evidence.
---
The investigation was handed over to an experienced police officer, Inspector Arjun Menon.
For years, Arjun had handled cases involving political pressure and powerful people.
He was not a man who believed stories simply by looking at people.
He believed in one thing.
Evidence.
At 8:40 in the morning, Arjun reached the crime scene.
He carefully examined the entire room.
Broken glass.
An overturned chair.
Files scattered across the floor.
A mobile phone on the table.
But...
one thing immediately caught Arjun's attention.
There were very few signs of a struggle inside the room.
If the killer had been a complete stranger...
how had he managed to leave behind so little evidence?
Arjun turned to one of the officers.
“CCTV?”
The officer replied,
“Sir, the cameras in the building were switched off from 2:11 a.m. to 2:26 a.m.”
Arjun looked at him.
“Did they shut down naturally?”
“No, sir.”
“Then?”
“It looks like someone deliberately switched them off.”
Arjun said nothing.
He looked back into the room.
This murder...
had been carefully planned.
---
The investigation moved forward.
The police examined the phone.
They checked the calls made during the previous days.
Bank transactions were investigated.
Political connections were examined.
Business connections were traced.
Old cases were reopened.
A list of old enemies was prepared.
But...
not a single name directly led them to the killer.
At the same time, another problem began to emerge.
Several people connected to the dead man suddenly disappeared.
Some switched off their phones.
Some left the city.
Some refused to appear for police questioning.
As the investigation continued...
old political conflicts began coming back to the surface.
The Brahmin faction.
The Kshatriya faction.
Old political rivalries.
Old murders.
Old revenge.
Conflicts that everyone had believed were buried...
were beginning to return to the streets.
---
Meanwhile...
a crowd gathered outside the police station.
Two groups shouted slogans at each other.
Accusations were exchanged.
The police had to intervene.
Arjun stood near the station window and watched the scene.
One question kept running through his mind.
“Who is using this murder to ignite the old fire again?”
---
Then the political pressure began.
A phone call came from above.
“Finish the case quickly.”
Arjun calmly replied,
“We cannot arrest someone without evidence.”
There was silence on the other end.
Then the voice said,
“Arjun... this is not an ordinary case.”
Arjun replied,
“I know, sir.”
“Then act accordingly.”
The call ended.
Arjun stared at the phone for a few seconds.
Then he opened the file lying on his desk.
There was a name inside.
VICTOR RAFAEL RANA
Arjun read the name carefully.
But...
he knew nothing about the person behind it.
According to the police records...
Victor Rafael Rana was a businessman with foreign connections.
Beyond that?
There was very little reliable information.
Very few old records.
Almost no reliable information about his earlier life in India.
No clear family connections.
No known old friends.
No established political connections.
It was as if...
the past that should have existed in a man's life...
simply wasn't there.
Arjun closed the file.
“Who is this man?”
The officer sitting nearby replied,
“Sir, he is known as Victor Rafael Rana. That's all we have.”
Arjun looked at him again.
“What was his name before that?”
The officer remained silent.
“We couldn't find anything, sir.”
Arjun slowly leaned back in his chair.
He did not know it yet...
but the name Victor Rafael Rana was not merely a name.
It was a new identity created to hide an entire past.
But that secret...
was still unknown to everyone inside that police station.
---
As the investigation continued, the pressure increased.
Political pressure.
Social pressure.
Caste tensions.
Questions from the media.
Public protests.
Everyone was asking the same question—
“Who is the killer?”
The police had no answer.
Arjun had no answer.
Not a single piece of evidence pointed directly toward the killer.
But...
Arjun became certain of one thing.
This was not simply an act of personal revenge.
There was...
a story buried behind it.
A story that had been hidden for years.
He opened the file again.
At the top was one name.
DHANRAJ
Below it was another.
VICTOR RAFAEL RANA
Between the two names...
was a blank page.
That blank page was the real mystery of the case.
Who had written it?
Why had it been written?
Nobody knew.
---
THE LOOKOUT NOTICE
The investigation had continued, but the police still did not have a genuine photograph that could identify Victor Rafael Rana.
They had his name.
They had some documents.
They had fragments of information.
But...
nobody had actually seen his real face.
Still, the political pressure from above continued to grow.
“We need to issue a Lookout Notice.”
The instruction came again and again.
The investigating officers knew the problem.
A Lookout Notice without a photograph could create serious difficulties.
But the political pressure was stronger.
---
A special meeting was held at police headquarters.
Victor Rafael Rana's file was placed on the table.
Beside it was an empty photograph frame.
A senior officer asked,
“His original photograph?”
“Not available, sir.”
“An old photograph?”
“Nothing, sir.”
“Then how do we issue a Lookout Notice?”
Silence filled the room.
Finally, one officer said,
“We can prepare an image.”
Inspector Arjun Menon immediately asked,
“Based on what?”
The reply came quietly.
“Based on the information we have. A reconstruction.”
Arjun looked at the file.
He understood immediately.
This would not be a real photograph.
---
What happened next was even more unusual.
At that time, the body structure of one of India's biggest film stars, Shah Rukh Khan, was selected as a visual reference for the body of the unidentified suspect.
The overall body proportion.
The standing silhouette.
The shoulder structure.
The general appearance of the body.
All of it was used only as a reference.
But...
the face was not Shah Rukh Khan's face.
A completely fabricated face was created and presented as the face of Victor Rafael Rana.
A digital artist placed the fabricated face over the reference body.
The facial features were altered.
The beard was changed.
The hairstyle was changed.
The outline of the face was modified.
And finally...
an image was created.
Underneath it was the name:
VICTOR RAFAEL RANA
But that image...
was not a real photograph of Victor Rafael Rana.
It was a reconstruction.
And even the body used as the reference was not Victor's body.
It was based on Shah Rukh Khan's body structure, with a fabricated face created for the fictional suspect.
---
Arjun stared at the image on the computer screen.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he spoke quietly.
“This is not his real face.”
The officer in the room replied,
“I know.”
“Then you still want to release it?”
“It's an order from above.”
Arjun looked at the image again.
In a case where the police did not even know what the real man looked like...
they were about to present a constructed face to the public.
Because of one thing.
Political pressure.
---
That evening, the Lookout Notice was officially released.
To airports.
To seaports.
To state borders.
To police stations across the country.
The image also reached the news media.
Across television screens appeared—
VICTOR RAFAEL RANA
One image.
One name.
A nationwide search.
But...
even the police looking at that image knew one thing.
It was not the real face of Victor Rafael Rana.
---
That same night...
Arjun sat alone inside his office.
The Lookout Notice was lying on his desk.
He looked at the image once again.
Then he closed the file.
One question remained in his mind.
“What does the real Victor Rafael Rana actually look like?”
Nobody knew the answer.
But there was an even bigger question.
“Was the name Victor Rafael Rana itself even real?”
Outside, the rain grew heavier.
The entire city was searching for a face that did not truly exist.
And somewhere far away...
the real man was still living...
with his real face hidden from the world.
THE LEDGER
TO BE CONTINUED...
😊😊😊😊😊😊
THE LEDGER
CHAPTER 16 — THE FILES OF THE PAST
On the very same day the Lookout Notice for Victor Rafael Rana was released, the news spread across India.
Newspapers, television channels, digital media and social media were filled with one controversial story:
“POLICE RELEASE FICTIONAL IMAGE OF MURDER SUSPECT!”
“WAS A FILM STAR’S BODY STRUCTURE USED TO CREATE THE SUSPECT IMAGE?”
“POLICE DON’T EVEN HAVE VICTOR RAFAEL RANA’S REAL FACE?”
Every media house had its own headline.
The revelation that the body structure used in the reconstructed image had been taken as a visual reference from a film star created a nationwide controversy.
People began asking questions.
How could the police search for a murderer without a genuine photograph?
How could ordinary people identify a suspect from a fabricated image?
Why had the police released an image across the country when they themselves were not certain that it represented the real man?
And at the centre of all those questions stood one man.
Inspector Arjun Menon.
He was the Investigating Officer in the Dhanraj murder case.
The pressure on him increased.
Eventually, Arjun had to face the public and explain what had happened.
He stood before the media.
There was exhaustion in his face.
But there was no fear in his voice.
“The image released by the police is not a genuine photograph. It is a reconstruction prepared from the information available to the investigation. It was released as part of the investigation.”
The questions continued.
“Then does the police actually know what Victor Rafael Rana looks like?”
Arjun remained silent for a few seconds.
Then he answered:
“At present, we do not have a verified photograph of his real face.”
He walked away.
But that single statement created even more questions.
---
That evening, Arjun Menon returned to his office.
A file was lying open on his desk.
DHANRAJ.
Arjun stared at the name for several seconds.
One thing had become clear to him.
If he wanted to find Victor Rafael Rana, he first had to understand Dhanraj.
Who exactly was Dhanraj?
How had he built such a powerful network of political, financial and social connections?
How many enemies did he have?
Whom had he protected?
Whom had he destroyed?
And who had stood beside him?
The answer to even one of those questions could lead them to Victor Rafael Rana.
Arjun went to the old records section of the police office.
Files that had remained untouched for years were brought out one after another.
Old FIRs.
Murder cases.
Reports of political conflicts.
Land disputes.
Gang-related incidents.
Unsolved attacks.
Complaints involving political leaders.
Confidential police reports.
Dhanraj’s name appeared again and again.
But every file revealed a different version of the man.
In some files—
he was a political mediator.
In others—
a powerful local leader.
In some—
a man who had helped poor people.
And in others—
a ruthless power broker.
There were reports describing him as a protector.
Others described him as a man capable of extreme violence.
Arjun continued reading.
On one side were records of the brutal acts allegedly connected to Dhanraj.
On the other were records of charitable acts and assistance he had provided to people.
To the public, he had one face.
To his enemies, another.
To politicians, another.
And in the police files—
there was yet another Dhanraj.
Arjun pulled out an old document.
He opened it.
Two names immediately caught his attention.
He read them again.
The first name:
ADITYA RANA
Arjun's eyes stopped on the name.
Then he saw the second:
RUDRAPRATAP SINGH
He leaned back in his chair.
Why were these two names so deeply connected to Dhanraj’s past?
Arjun opened another file.
Inside was a report concerning an old political conflict.
An incident that had taken place many years earlier.
It appeared that Dhanraj’s real history began there.
Arjun slowly turned the first page.
His eyes returned to those two names.
Aditya Rana.
Rudrapratap Singh.
He did not yet know that these two men were not merely forgotten names from an old political history.
Their story was connected to the very foundation of Dhanraj’s power.
And more importantly—
the road leading to Victor Rafael Rana also passed through this buried history.
Arjun did not close the file.
He turned the next page.
At the top was a single line:
“THE BEGINNING OF THE CONFLICT.”
Arjun began to read.
What lay before him was no longer simply the investigation of a murder.
It was a history that had been buried for years.
And now—
the past was beginning to speak.
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