The way I used to live novel Chapter 45

Arjun's POV:

Finally, the day of the court hearing arrived. Daksha couldn't rest peacefully because of the hearing. She had been pretty nervous about the outcome because she already experienced failure once and lost a precious person in her life.

I couldn't do anything except for assuring her that nothing would go wrong.

I was in the court along with Indra to discuss the last-minute details. Daksha, along with mom, Grandpa, and her whole family entered the court as the time for the hearing was getting nearer.

I just nodded at them and greeted them briefly before involving myself in a talk with Indra and saw that Aditya was guiding them inside the waiting room.

Rahul too came and went inside along with his lawyer after glaring at me and I smirked at him slightly.

Well, anyone in his place would get angry because he lost his family's support to use their influence to get out of this pit and even his company was also in huge shackles. It was like he was playing the game even when he knew he was going to lose.

Indra and I went inside too. Soon, the entry of the judge was announced and after all the initial formalities, the official trial began.

"Prosecutor, you may make the opening statements," I immediately bowed my head at him in greetings.

"Your honor, the defendant, Mr.Rahul, is accused of killing my client's acquaintance Swathi and her own sister-in-law, Tejaswi. In addition to those accusations, I have some proof to support the claims of him being involved in child and women trafficking. So, let me start with Ms. Swathi's case first," I explained and saw that the judge nodded at me before asking the defendant lawyer to make his opening statements. After he was done, I started telling my claims.

"Ms. Swathi used to work as a maid in Mr.Rahul's house. One fine day, when there was no one at home, Mr. Rahul forced himself on her and raped her brutally. He even threatened her to not say anything about this matter to anyone but Ms. Swathi informed her parents with the hope that they might support her. Instead of supporting her, they shunned her into silence. Later, Ms. Swathi found herself pregnant and when he came to know about it, he forcefully took her to the hospital to abort the baby where my client Daksha was working as a doctor. At the hospital, Mr. Rahul was involved in an argument with my client and her friend. It's better if we hear everything from my client itself," I briefly suggested. When the judge gave his approval, Daksha was escorted to the podium. She came and stood there nervously. When I smiled at her discreetly in an assuring manner, she nodded at me before starting to narrate the happenings.

"Everything that the prosecutor has said is correct. That day, I went to my friend's department to meet her but I got to witness him arguing with my friend. From their words, I got to know that he was forcing Swathi to abort the baby against her will. When he was about to slap my friend, I stopped him and slapped him. He left from there angrily after warning us. After he left, Swathi told us everything about his deeds. When I encouraged her to file a complaint against him, she did it in the hopes of getting justice. When we thought that he was going to get punished, unexpectedly the case got closed and we were accused of defaming his character. After a few days, I found out the death news of Swathi. She hung herself in her house but I truly believe that she is not a weak person to kill herself. So, it has to be a murder," dhe said everything in one go.

"Objection, your honor," the defense lawyer shouted.

"Objection sustained."

"Thanks, your honor. How can you be sure that my client had forced himself on Ms. Swathi? The deed must be done with her consent too. She must be a willing party too. Let me tell you this, Ms. Swathi was the one who pestered my client to have a relationship with her. Later when she got pregnant, she used her baby to blackmail my client to marry her, or otherwise she would go to the media and would tell the whole world that he raped her. So, he forced her to abort the baby to save his reputation. Seeing that he was not agreeing to the marriage, she decided to file a case against him in order to at least loot some amount from him but all her plans failed when my client’s innocence was proven. After the case was over, her family completely outcast her for making them face humiliation. So, she killed herself as she didn't have any option. So, your honor, all the baseless accusations they made on my client are false. He is innocent," he said in a humble tone and I resisted the urge to scoff at his face.

"So, do you have any proof to show that your client is innocent?" I asked the defense lawyer and he just smirked at me.

"Well, I don't have any proof and so do you. Sir, the court needs valid proof and not some baseless accusations. If you don't have one, then don't accuse my client erroneously," he said cockily.

"Who said that I don't have any proof?" I shot back at him with a smirk and upon hearing my words, his previous arrogance faded away from his face. He immediately exchanged a look with Rahul who was already looking at me with a confused face.

"Your honor, I do have some proof to show that Ms. Swathi was murdered and the murderer was Mr. Rahul." Saying this, I handed over the evidence to the court.

The evidence was nothing but Swathi's handwritten diary, autopsy report, and Rahul's cufflink of his suit.

Seeing the diary, their faces morphed into a frown, unable to fathom how they missed this silly point.

"Your honor, I doubt the authenticity of the proof. Ms. Swathi was a maid who didn't even get primary education. So, I seriously doubt that she knew how to write and as for the cufflink, it is a counterfeit they prepared to accuse my client," he came to the defense of Rahul.

"Your honor, I think the defense lawyer doesn't know the meaning of a literate person. A person can be literate without even having proper education and moreover, the language she used here is not any foreign language but her mother tongue. You can check the genuineness. She mentioned everything in her diary. From how he forced himself on her and how she spent her nights with the nightmares. She seriously fell into depression. You can see the medical reports of Ms. Swathi.

"She suffered from clinical depression but she recovered from it pretty soon and if you see the reason as to why she suffered from it, you will know who was the reason behind her miseries. Even before dying, she wrote how she was receiving threat messages from Mr. Rahul but she mentioned clearly that she wouldn't be a coward from now on and would fight everything for her baby. So considering her mental health, is there any possibility for her to kill herself? I agree she suffered from depression and having suicidal tendencies is pretty common in such patients but she recovered from it soon itself and proved that she was a fighter." When the defense lawyer was about to refute my words, I interrupted him.

"Let me complete what I want to say. As for the cufflink, I can say that it surely belongs to Mr. Rahul. It is a customized one from a famous company in Italy. They prepare things as per the requirements of their customers and are known for their morality. They never accept bribes to do illegal things. The thing is, they did make another cufflink but only upon the request of Mr. Rahul. When he realized that he lost his cufflink, he placed an order for them to make the same cufflink that matches the other one. If you look at the counterfeit bill of that order, surprisingly it is the same date where Ms. Swathi was found dead and her family found this cufflink beside her dead body. As for the autopsy, the reports clearly said Ms. Swathi struggled to save her life and there were nail marks, fingerprints on her face and body. I suspect that he again raped her," I told in a high pitched tone.

"No. You are wrong. I didn't rape her. I just killed-" Rahul exclaimed but stopped immediately after realizing what he was saying but anyone could guess that he blurted out the truth in anxiety. The last accusation that I made was false but I did it to rile him up in hopes that he would tell the truth and he did, but not completely.

"Objection, your honor. the prosecutor is misleading the case and he is using my client's emotional imbalance as a tool and forcing him to agree with his claims."

"Objection overruled." The judge refused angrily and I just passed a sly smile at him to which he glared at me angrily.

"Court is verifying the authenticity of the claims and we hope that the doctor who treated Ms. Swathi will cooperate with the investigation. Meanwhile, Mr. Prosecutor, you can carry on with your other claims," he said and I just nodded at him before submitting every proof against him.