Angara The beginning

The Angara

Jeron works for a multinational company in Bangalore, he was assigned an onboard project in the USA but for that, he has to submit his college certificates which he failed to do while joining. so, Jeron's native place is Angara, a remote village in Kerala surrounded by dense forests called Angara forests.
Jeron has done his graduation from a local engineering college which is 20 km from his place.
There are two things Jeron is very much obsessed with. one is his mobile another is his bike.
Jeron reached his place that night and next day morning he starts to his college on his bike, he was so excited to meet his faculty again and the news that his best friend Kamal has been working in the college as an associate professor boosted his excitement. Jeron had to pass through the dense Angara forest to reach his college. Not only him but every individual in the village has to pass through the Angara forests irrespective of their destination. Angara village has got only one entry and no exit because the Angara forest and the village is surrounded by Alakali river.
Jeron reached the bank of the river and parked his vehicle in the nearby forest department office.
Now he took a boat and reached another end of the river from there he walked a little distance to reach his college. Jeron completed his certification work and met his faculty and spent a good amount of time with his best friend Kamal. After a while he makes his way back home. Jeron reached the place where he parked his bike. To his surprise, Jeron couldn't find his bike at that place. Jeron goes inside the forest office to enquire about his bike but finds no one in the office.
The  he notices few local tribe kids playing in the surroundings. He asked them if they noticed his bike. The moment he stopped them, they started running away from him. After a long search, he realises that he forgot his mobile phone at Kamal's office. Jeron is now tensed about both his bike and mobile. it was getting dark and he had to pass through the forest to reach his home. In the meantime, he noticed a big pit near the tree and inside the pit was his bike lying with the rear seat missing. he somehow managed to bring it out after a great effort. Jeron suspected those kids whom he saw at first because their strange behaviour when he tried to have a word with them. He now decides to go back to college and get his mobile phone before it gets completely dark and does so.
Jeron came back to the place where he parked his bike and this time those kids were again playing near the tree. Jeron catches hold of them and asks them about the mischief they did earlier and asked for his missing rear seat. those kids out of fear yell "Amma"(mom).
Within no time Jeron was surrounded by the tribes with a sought of aggression in their facial expressions as if Jeron had done something wrong to their kids. Jeron tried to explain them about what their kids have done to him. But before he completed his statement. the kid starts shouting " this man killed an old lady near the palm tree in the forest". That gave Jeron chill in his nerves. The very next momen the tribes tied him to the tree and decided to handover Jeron to the forest officer.
It was already dark and the forest officer returned at 9 pm the tribes explained everything to the officer. To get it confirmed the officer and Jeron together go near the palm tree where they find both the dead body and his bike rear seat. with this, the officer could have closed the case stating that Jeron had committed the crime but Jeron explained everything from his end which sounded true and the officer also enquired from the college whether it was true. The officer was perplexed with the situation. Jeron asked the officer to leave him, to which the officer denied because he wanted him to stay until the case is closed. After all, there is a chance that the tribes might feel that Jeron might have bribed the officer to leave him. 

Now the question is who might have killed the old lady and who she was?
That night Jeron and officer had their dinner and took rest in the office. The next day morning a special team was appointed to look into the case. The kids were called for interrogation in which they were asked if they saw Jeron killing the old lady, to which they answered "we didn't see Jeron's face but it was his bike for sure" so this way those kids thought it was Jeron who killed that lady. One officer from the investigation team was assigned a task to get the details of the old lady (victim). Her name was "myna" she lived alone inside the forest in a small hut. The officer enquired all the tribes about her because they too live inside the forest. They said that she used to live far from their place and she never used to talk to anyone of them. it's also said that she had been trying to do Blackmagic for years to interact to her dead husband.

One of the cop's Ranganath made his point that she might have done Blackmagic and passed away in the process. The officer then yelled at the policeman about his dumbness. Jeron asked about what his bike's rear seat was doing near the corpse and why did those kida insist that they have seen my bike at the crime scene.
That day ended with some paperwork and postmortem of the corpse. The reports were yet to arrive.
The officer asked Jeron to go back to his place and apologized him for causing inconvenience.
Jeron left the place. That night officer had his dinner at his office and completed a few pending paper works which are to be submitted to the forest department. After a while, the officer made his way for rounds into the woods and in this process he finds someone running towards the old lady's hut in a black hoodie. The officer followed him slowly and until he was felt being hit by a sharp object in his neck.

To be contd.................