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CRIME: PALACE DEATH
Mystery Of The Blue Sari
A polo player found dead after a party. A beautiful
woman. A garment without a claimant. The Rajasthan High Court orders the
police to get cracking on the scandal.
By Rohit Parihar
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NO EASY GAME: Polo player Bera (left); his mother Mira, who took
the battle to court
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On the morning of
August 23, 2000, divers in Jodhpur found the body of a young man in jeans
and T-shirt. It had come to rest a few yards from a platform in the middle
of Balsamand Palace lake on the town's outskirts. Nearby, a blue and white
georgette sari, still smelling of perfume, was found. The body bore bruises
on the back, right eyebrow and cheek, and there was an abrasion on the
nose. The previous night, Jodhpur's royals had had a lake-side party at
the venue. And sometime before it ended, there had been an accident-or
murder.
Brij Raj Singh Bera, a one-handicap polo player
of the "Jodhpur royal team", was 25 when he died. The police
immediately began proceedings for an inquest which is mandatory in all
cases of "untimely" death, and their investigations are still
on. They did not lodge an fir. In fact, on October 17, 2000, the police
had declined Bera's mother Mira Singh's plea to lodge an fir suspecting
murder, saying they had no evidence to do so. Now they will have to. Mira
Singh had moved the Rajasthan High Court after the police refused her
request, and on March 15 the court ordered the police to lodge the fir
for murder and record her statement.
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CENTREPIECE: The platform (encircled) near which Bera's body and
the sari were found
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Given the list of those implicated, it is no
wonder the police were reluctant about the fir. In her statement, Mira
Singh named some of the most respected people in Jodhpur: Shiv
Raj Singh, son of Gaj Singh, the former maharaja of Jodhpur, Nikhlendra
Singh, son of Rao Raja Mahendra Singh, and Vikramaditya, son of Sunder
Singh, private secretary to the former maharaja, are her suspects. Delhi-based
Mira Singh worked as an investigator with Lancers Network Ltd, a multinational
investigative agency that is now investigating the case. She now works
as senior manager at security concern Wackenhut and Lancers, a sister
concern.
Rina Singh is said to be a beautiful woman from
a minor Rajput family of Madhya Pradesh. She is a computer professional
and lives in the US. She had reportedly come to Jodhpur on a holiday.
She stayed at Balsamand. This palace, like many others in Rajasthan, is
now a heritage hotel. During her stay there she came into contact with
Bera, who taught her horse-riding.
Mira Singh says Rina was there for the party
on August 22, though her name does not figure in the guest list submitted
by Sunder Singh to the police. It was the birthday of Shivranjani, Gaj
Singh's daughter. Moreover, Raja Mahendra Singh was going abroad the next
day. The drinks flowed. Towards early morning, apparently, some of the
young people decided to go for a swim. Which is when trouble struck.
The details get murky from here on. Only five
men had stayed on after midnight, says Sunder Singh. K.V. Singh, son of
Gaj Singh's cousin Saubheg Singh, was one of them. Around 2 a.m. he got
into the water and swam over 125 ft to where the platform is. Three others
were sitting by the lake-side when they noticed someone walking down the
steps that lead from the adjoining dam to the lake. It was Bera; he had
had a fall, and had vomited, say K.V. Singh and the others. Seeing him
lurching towards the lake, one of the three yelled to him to stop. But
he would not listen and jumped into the lake. A short while later, he
began to drown. K.V. Singh says he saw a hand raised some distance away
in the dark, but heard no cry. "I jumped in to save him, and so did
the others, but in the dark we were soon exasperated," he told the
police the morning after the tragedy.
That's version one. Version two is very different.
At least a dozen men and women were present, go reports. They included
Rina Singh and a married woman in a blue sari who on an earlier occasion
is said to have kissed Bera in her husband's presence, to his anger and
dismay. After dinner this lot went swimming at a new pool in the palace
precincts, which is when the sari was shed. At this point some of the
young men misbehaved with Rina Singh. Bera intervened, and was struck
on the head. Or perhaps he was seen with the woman in blue saree and knocked
down by her husband. In either case, he fell unconscious, was tied with
the blue sari, taken to the platform and dumped near the water there.
Between these two widely divergent versions
of the story is the one most police officers view as the likeliest: that
the princes and princesses were present, and that several of them got
into the water for a swim. According to this theory, K.V. Singh had a
bet with Bera on swimming up to the platform. He won; unfortunately, Bera
drowned. To keep the women out of the investigations, the group of royals
decided upon the "only men were present" story, and denied there
was any birthday party for the princess. Senior police officers say the
alleged cover-up could land the partying aristocrats in trouble, even
if the drowning is proved to be purely accidental.
"I am shocked at the way the police have
carried out investigations," says Mira Singh, relieved that the court
has finally stepped in. She is confident her detective agency will come
up with a breakthrough before the police do. She has stated that K.V.
Singh's wife Shaweta was also present at the party, something the police
say Shaweta denied. On their part, the police deny protecting anybody.
Jodhpur's Assistant Superintendent of Police S. Sengathir, who is now
handling the investigation, advises caution. "For want of evidence,
we can't commit to any theory yet," he says. The police say they
looked into Mira Singh's suspicions but found them to be hearsay. They
opine that registering an fir won't make any difference even though the
fir does give them the power to make arrests.
There are many angularities in the investigation,
though. In the post mortem report, the bruises on the body are reported
as being ante mortem. That means they occurred before death. However,
no mention is made of whether alcohol was present in the body, or how
old the injuries were. The viscera was not sent for medical analysis and
no medical board was constituted for the post mortem though it was conducted
against Bera's family's wishes. The mystery of the blue sari and its relation
to the crime also remains unsolved. It was sent for forensic examination
as late as November 30. The report isn't in yet.
The police have recorded the statements of known
witnesses.
Gaj Singh and his son Shiv Raj have also given their statements. Perhaps
significantly, Shiv Raj has not mentioned his time of departure from the
party. Sunder Singh on his part describes the allegation of murder as
"baseless" and says, "Even Mira Singh has given no basis
for naming the suspects." The other characters are now incommunicado.
Rina Singh was sent a questionnaire by the police at her Lucknow address,
but she is yet to respond. Police are trying to reach her at her Philadelphia
address. Mira Singh alleges that Rina was hustled out of Jodhpur the morning
after her son's death in order to put a lid on whatever happened. The
police and Sunder Singh deny this, saying she was there till September
2.
There is no motive for a murder, the police
insist. K.V. Singh has a rhetorical question for anyone who advances the
murder theory: "Why would anyone kill Brij Raj in the presence of
so many people and hotel staff?" Why indeed. Unless it were a crime
of passion, committed in the heat of an intemperate moment. Jodhpur's
blue-blooded society is left to contemplate the blue sari mystery.
-With Samrat Choudhury
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