Hearing

January 9th, 2025 12:00 Noon

Ayaan was done with both targets and came out of the interrogation room. Dia was waiting for him there with a tablet in her hands. She looked anxious.

Her eyes were shifty and her fingers were fidgety.

"What happened?"

"We got a message from the headquarters, sir."

"Headquarters?"

"Yes, sir." She handed the tablet over to him.

Ayaan frowned and took the tablet. He read the email already opened on the screen. There was a lot of stupid and unnecessary jargon of bureaucracy. Bypassing all that, he got the gist of the situation.

'Your recent activity has been marked as suspicious. It has come to our note that your recent investigation into the Black Dog organization, the local police force of Vashora city, and forceful measures used in acquiring the custody of the sons of a state minister and an esteemed businessman have crossed the lines several times.

The council members have looked into it and your competency as the leader of a special team has been brought into question.

We are holding a hearing for you tonight at 9 PM at Rajmira in our Council Headquarters.

Please attend it or your privileges will be suspended.'

Ayaan's frown deepened, but he it eased again.

"Since its official business, prepare the official plane. I am leaving now."

"But boss, a hearing…"

"Don't worry about it, Dia. You just focus on the investigation. All the nonsense of the bureaucracy is mine to take care of."

"I understand, sir. But how did the Rajmira even knew to flag us? I know that the minister has some pull. But he doesn't even know the existence of the special team or your involvement in this. How did our name even come up."

"I am about to find out tonight."

Ayaan looked at her and seeing she is still worried and nervous, he continued.

"The council and the special teams operate a bit differently. It takes a lot of power and bureaucracy to conduct a hearing to a special team. However, if they fail nail me, they must pay a price."

Ayaan walked to the roof where a chopper was waiting for him. He got and it dropped him at the aerodrome where the military plain was waiting for him.

He got on and within an hour, he was taken to Rajmira.

A car awaited his arrival. He was taken to a hotel where he rested until evening. He had a good meal, took a nap and let his body and mind rest. He couldn't get any sleep the night before, because of the assassination attempt.

After a nap, he felt refreshed and relieved.

The car was already waiting for him by the time he came down.

January 9th, 2025 9:00 PM

Ayaan was sitting inside a meeting room. The room was mostly empty, with a single chair at the center under a spotlight. There was a slightly elevated platform facing the chair with a table and seven chairs on it.

The central chair appeared a bit more elevated than the rest and it was the only one unoccupied.

The remaining six chairs were occupied. A man in his early fifties sat on the right side extreme end. The Chief of Staff of Bhavaran Military.

To his left sat a woman. The Director of the National Intelligence

To her left sat a man in his late fifties in a crisp suit. Even at night, he looked like he was fresh out of the shower in the morning. The Head of the Department of Defense.

 On the extreme left sat a man who wore a suit that appeared a tad bit luxurious. In his sixties, its the Minister of Home affairs. To his left sat a man, the representative of the supreme court. And to his left sat another woman.

Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The seventh and the central chair was for the head of the council, who didn't appear to the meeting.

All seven of them make the council that monitors the special teams that act as independent entities.

The minister of home affairs was the one who spoke.

"Rear Admiral Ayaan Rakshit.

You have been called for this council hearing due to the suspicions you raised with your recent activities. It has been brought to our attention that you are utilizing the powers of the special team for your own personal vendetta and in process caused dozens of casualties.

Special teams are created as part of the special program envisioned and pioneered by our Honorable Prime Minister.

While the special teams act as independent entities that do not answer to the local forces and have been given the rights and privileges to bypass the usual red tape and act on their own discretion in the process of protecting the national interests, we do wish that the people who wield that power have the ethical and moral responsibility to not abuse that power for their own personal reasons.

And as the representative of the council, I wish that in this hearing you would be able to prove our suspicions wrong and resume your duties and contributions to the nation."

Ayaan didn't answer him and just watched.

The council members exchanged a glance and some awkward silence reigned over the room for a while.

The Minister of Home Affairs continued.

"Rear Admiral, as you know the rules, three members of the council have raised objections over your activities in the recent days. Particularly over the matters that I am about to list out.

Abuse of authority over the local police force for exercising reasonable suspicion over you.

Abuse of authority in threatening the IGP Williams.

Excessive use of force in dealing with the Black Dog enterprise and their employees.

Excessive use of force and violation of human rights over the local police officers including IGP Williams and his family members.

I would like to ask, were those actions intentional, Rear Admiral?"

Ayaan stayed silent for a moment and replied.

"Minister. I do not like the way you questioned me."

The minister chuckled and said.

"Well, it is my duty, Rear Admiral. As a soldier I thought you would be appreciative of a fellow duty bound official doing their job."

"I never said that I don't appreciate it."

"But your statement, the one you just made implies that you don't like the way I questioned you."

"Precisely, I never said I didn't like that you questioned me."

"Then you should have phrased it properly, Rear Admiral."

"Exactly, that's my point. You should also phrase your questions properly, Minister. By starting your question as if you are asking for clarification, you ended it with asking me if it was intentional. Are you confirming the validity of suspicions or validity of intention, assuming I am guilty?"

Minister paused.

He couldn't think of anything to say and awkward silence reigned again.

The judge looking at the scene was about to speak, when Ayaan continued.

"Council Members, if you don't mind, I will give you a complete objective overview of what happened in the past nine days and you can make a judgement after hearing.

I was hoping we could move things faster, assuming my explanation will give you all the answers you need."

He paused, as if he was waiting for someone to object, the council members hesitated and before they could decide, Ayaan continued.

"As you might have known, my sister Maya Rakshit was brutalized by four animals in human skin. The local police forces that you mentioned, colluded with the doctor in charge and covered up the brutalization.

My team must have already mailed the medical report of my sister. You can refer to it understand the crimes of the four animals that I mentioned. Unfortunately, my parents also died on the same day as my sister's incident.

I simply checked if the protocol was followed. There were a few red flags and I found out the Inspector Rakshit was involved. We tried to move in for questioning, but he was already dead before we could approach him.

Later, I was taken away by the police, without proper protocol. Their suspicions directly turned to me. Upon further investigation, we found that the local police station hadn't followed any proper protocol in my sister's case.

It did start as a private matter, however I had all the grounds to check up on them since the start. They broke the protocol.

And just like our Minister here, I am an officer bound by the duty.

In the process, we uncovered a massive number of crimes under the belt of the police force. Just the DSP in charge of my sister's case alone had 246 counts of bribery of the highest level and he covered cases ranging from ordinary thefts to rape and murder.

In the process, an assassination attempt was made on me when I was out on a personal trip.

The Black Dog organization was the perpetrator behind it.

Once again, I had grounds for investigation once again and I hadn't abused my authority in opening the investigation on them.

As for the excessive use of force.

The guidelines of the special teams clearly state that the leader of the special team can use any means necessary if there is a threat to the national interest, and that includes the death penalty, which I gave."

"You gave the death penalty to dozens of people in a matter of nine days? That too several of them are police officers.

Rear Admiral Ayaan, if I didn't know any better, I would assume you are taking the law into your own hands with no regard for the government and its systems."

The Judge spoke.

"Judge, I did say that I will give the full account and I wasn't done with it yet. So, please, let me finish."

He ignored the judge's question and continued his account.

"My team must have mailed you all the investigation results on the black dog and the IGP Williams and his subordinates.

I did execute the death penalty on the captured members of the black dog organization. All the key members have been involved in at least three, fifth-grade treacherous activities to the national interest,.

You should have received that too.

As for the deaths at Sthal… it was self-defense. Sixty members tried to surround and kill me, conspiring with the local police force.

I had to kill them to get out."

"You killed sixty members when you were surrounded and locked? How?" The judge asked, clearly shocked. The chief of staff on the other hand raised an eyebrow in intrigue.

"Once again Judge. I am not done yet."

"You…" The judge got pissed this time. Ayaan's disregard is irking him.

"Judge." Ayaan said and looked at him in the eye. His aura changed and his gaze turned sharper.

After a few seconds of silence, the judge averted his gaze while Ayaan continued.

"The same goes with the police officers of Vashora. As you all know, according to the guidelines of the special teams. The police officers, military, and other government officers will be judged much more harshly by the special teams even for the crimes, compared to a regular civilian.

Still, I tried to give them a chance, however they all resisted and tried to shoot me. And I can assure you that I tried my best to subdue them and only killed them after they wasted their three chances.

You have detailed reports and the witness statements, signed and attested by the superior officers of the police that witnessed my actions."

This time Ayaan stopped.

"Why weren't they submitted before?"

"According to the guidelines, no special team is obligated to submit their investigation results to the council. Because while the council is a monitoring entity, it is not a supervisory or a superior entity to the special teams.

In short, I don't work for you guys to report every detail."

The atmosphere changed. All six of them looked at Ayaan with deep frowns.

"What happened to the culprits of your sister's 'brutalization'?"

"There are four culprits. I have DNA evidence. The fourth one was yet to be identified. The other three were identified, captured, interrogated, and executed."

"Executed? Rear Admiral, they might have done something less than human. But they still have human rights and they…" The Minister of Home Affairs who began his statement, froze.

The whole room suddenly turned a tad bit colder. Ayaan's face however appeared like it was sculpted out ice. His hand trembled slightly. The minister involuntarily touched his neck. He felt like something sharp was touching it.

"Reign it in a bit, young man." The chief of staff in the military uniform spoke and looked at Ayaan with a slight smile.

Only then did the rest of the room be able to breathe.

Then the chief turned to the minister and said.

"You too minister. Please don't bring up the human rights here. I don't know if you remember all the guidelines, but the special teams come with some personal privileges. One of them is the absolute safety of their kin.

And in case that safety is compromised and they were not given proper justice, it is in the hands of the special team to pursue the matter and the criminals who acted against them will not be treated as citizens of this nation.

This is Bhavara and the rights of our soldiers and their families come above the rights of the beasts that hurt those families.

Every member of the council was there when the rule was added. So, please. Don't."

Once again, an awkward silence.

After exactly one minute.

Ayaan spoke.

"I presented my case and if you do not have a punishment for me, I believe it is your turn to give me the explanation council.

Who among you are the three council members who gave their objections and suspicions to make this meeting happen?

Because none of the details of the case were ever made public. Not a single detail was revealed to the news and it was absolutely suppressed.

So, how did the three council members know of this information?"