Without Fear Or Favour

The Week Brings You Six Of India’s Finest Investigators, Whose Triumphs Over Challenges Have Helped Reinforce Our Faith In Justice

- Namrata Biji Ahuja

An investigation is only as good as the investigator. In one of Arthur Conan Doyle's best-known detective stories, ‘The Adventure of Silver Blaze’, Sherlock Holmes inquires into the disappearance of the eponymous race horse and the murder of its trainer. At the crime scene, he finds an abundance of evidence, but he believes all of them to be false leads. So he decides to focus on a missing link. When a Scotland Yard detective asks Holmes whether he wanted to draw attention to any particular clue, Holmes replies: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”

“But, the dog did nothing in the night-time,” says the detective.

Holmes replies: “That was the curious incident.” In the end, the fact that the dog did not bark helps him unravel the mystery.

We have all been enchanted by the exploits of fictional supersleuths like Holmes. But, what about real-life investigators in our country—who constantly battle lack of resources, political pressure, media scrutiny and threats? Why is that we rarely hear about their achievements, even though their triumphs are crucial in reinforcing our trust in the system?

In India, the talent for finding missing clues rarely makes a good investigator. He needs to be honest, fearless and self-motivated to take on criminals, corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, and perpetrators of terror. He may not be born with all the required skills. Each high-profile case tests his mettle; worse, his triumphs may not bring the expected rewards.