The impact of these words forced everyone to silence themselves. The voice was not like a request but a command which forced people to submit to the authority of the tone. The restless people returned to their seats and a pin drop silence was achieved. Bondita gently exhaled. She stood up and walked straight to the center. “Greetings to everyone, I am Barrister Bondita Das. As described earlier, I am a convict and a runaway. However, standing here, today I shall prove my innocence.” Thus, began Bondita’s battle to prove herself.
“If I remember correctly, the first accusation against me was filed by Mr Somnath stating that I deliberately sent poisonous goods to harm Sakh…” Bondita paused momentarily, let out a mirthless smile, inhaled deeply and looked back at the Panch. “To harm Barrister Anirudh. However, I deny that accusation completely. Yes, I did send Barrister Anirudh a box of goods but it wasn’t poisoned or anything.”
“As if we would believe that” Somnath said from behind with gritted teeth. “Of course, you won’t believe me, but I presume you will believe this man” At this sentence, everybody finally noticed a man standing quietly by Chandrachur “Is that…??” Trilochan began “Yes, he is the one” Bondita continued. “This is Mr Anuragh Basu who owns the most trusted retails shop in Tulsipur. It was from his shop that I had bought the goods to be sent to Mr Anirudh. As already known by everyone, Mr Anuragh keeps a receipt of every purchase and he has my receipt too. I request Mr Anuragh to show the receipt to everyone. Well, now if you notice that there is a cost of packaging also involved in the list which simply means that the goods along with my pre-written letter, was packaged by him directly after the purchase. So where is the time or place for me to poison those goods ??This only means that Barrister Anirudh never got my box of goods. The one which he got was the one replaced for my box. Thus, it proves that I was not involved in harming Mr Anirudh.”
“But…” Somnath began but regained his silence after finding no words to say. Well, he wasn’t the only one rendered speechless. Anirudh, too was frozen. It was that day Anirudh realized that why wounds given by words are considered far more painful that wounds given by swords. The slight change in Bondita’s speech from Sakha Babu to Barrister Anirudh had left him shattered. For the first time in his life, he resented hearing his own name from the mouth of his beloved.
“Coming on to second accusation by the eldest bahu of Roy Chowdhary, who believes that I locked her inside the room and took advantage of her husband to hurt him. Well, as we all know that a few days ago, another spy confessed to doing the above but to make it clear; I would like to ask just one question. If I was a spy with the intention to harm Mr Binoy, why would I take him away from the goons? Rather than locking her, shouldn’t I have locked the front door, so those kidnappers could continue their work without any fear of being discovered??” Bondita questioned on.
“If you wanted to save him, why did you take him to the competition ground?” Trilochan immediately retorted.
Bondita let out a small laugh, she knew she will be contradicted for this but the answer was already ready at the tip of her tongue.
“Well, well, Zamindar babu, I just wanted to know that if you are to visit London all alone one day and some local goons are trying to catch you, will you able to navigate through the city just as easily as you change your sides and perceptions?”