The Dreaded Conspiracy - 21

One night, the King was informed that one of the jail inmates had died owing to illness.  A plan struck him! 

Raghunathan knew that this dead prisoner did not have any family and therefore no one would come forward to claim his body.  He, at once, visited the cell alongwith the palace physician, Kartik, who after some examination gave the permission to perform his funeral rites.  Raghunathan retired to his chambers and called over some of his aides and told them to take the dead body to Vikrant’s cell and then wait for him.

The King’s accomplices did as they were told.  The other prisoners of the prison could see the King’s men taking this body in the direction of Vikrant’s cell but they did not suspect anything. 

The reason was the backward entrance from where one could come in and go out of the prison which was just beside Vikrant’s dungeon.  Therefore, they felt that this dead inmate was being taken out of the prison for performing his funeral rites. 

Also, another fact was that Vikrant’s jail and the entrance were at a corner of a narrow passage that was separated by a wall, from the other jail inmates who were at the other end. Therefore, none of the other prisoners could have a view of either the entrance or the minister’s cell from their side except seeing someone going in that direction. 

There were some cells even at Vikrant’s end but as they were all empty, no one stood there to guard it.

After the body was brought to Vikrant’s dungeon, the King came from the backward entrance and asked the minister to hand over his ornaments and jewellery. 

Vikrant did as he was told. Thereby, the King gestured one of his men to move ahead.  This man, who was actively involved in making the secret chamber in that cell, bent down with a mashaal in his hand.  He went beneath the wooden platform that was placed a few inches above the ground, where Vikrant used to sit and sleep. 

The floor of all the cells in the prison was paved with wooden slabs.  Beneath the platform of Vikrant’s cell, it could be observed that there was a slightly larger gap between two slabs unlike the others, which were closely attached to each other.

This man who had bent down, put his little finger in the gap and gave a gentle push to one of these slabs which flung open!  This was the opening to the secret chamber! Raghunathan asked Vikrant to go from this opening and informed him, “After you come out of this passage, there will be a chariot waiting outside which would take you to the palace of King Siddharth.

In my friend’s place, you will act as if you are a close friend of his son, Paramvir.  It will be made out that both of you were colleagues during your education at gurukul although you are elder to him by a few years.  

Paramvir will appoint you as one of his accomplices and from there by your intelligence and hard work, you can scale to greater heights.  You will, of course, change your looks so that nobody from our kingdom recognises you for the next twelve years.”  

Vikrant agreed and disappeared inside the passage. The open wooden slab was closed and the King made the corpse wear the ornaments of Vikrant.  Thereby, he took a mashaal and burned the cell with it!  

After the corpse was badly burnt, the King asked his men to leave, came out of the cell and instructed the guard who stood on vigil as to what he had to tell the others when asked about what had happened in Vikrant’s cell.  He asked the guard to raise an alarm and also exhorted him to put down the fire before it reaches the tile that had a secret passage below. 

The reason being if the fire destroyed that tile, it might expose the passage beneath it.  Thereby, things happened just as the King had wanted. **

Raghunathan continued as a stunned Durbar looked at him without battling an eyelid, “Vikrant is safe in the kingdom of my friend!  Just as I had expected, he has now earned much fame in Siddharth’s kingdom.  He has come in close rapport not only with Paramvir but also with the King himself and is today ranked among his well known ministers!” 

The King paused and then commanded Biksham imperatively, “Now, I want you to confess your crime, Biksham!”  

Biksham, who till now was hanging his head down slowly raised his head and looked at the King.  His eyes showed that he was feeling highly embarrassed.  “Yes, Maharaj!  You are right!  I am the one who tried to kill your son!”  Biksham admitted and continued,  “For ten long years after your marriage, you had no son! 

During this period, my spies informed me about the rumour that was abuzz in the kingdom.  People were of the opinion that if you do not get any heir to succeed you to the throne, you may hand over the leadership to me! 

I was exhilarated to learn about this development!  As I thought about it, it only made me firmly believe that the people were right in their assumptions!  After all, I was way ahead than all the other ministers in effectively managing the administrative affairs of the kingdom and what was more, I was your most trusted aide.

Besides, you yourself used to refer me as your right hand!

Vijaya was born after ten years had passed by after your marriage.  With his birth, my dream of becoming the ruler of this kingdom came crashing down that filled me with disappointment and rage against the Prince. 

Try as I might, after so much of anticipation over the years, I was unable to accept the reality that I could never ascend the throne after you.  I began to think of ways and means of getting rid of the young Prince so that I could relish my dream.  I knew that I had to devise a master plan to kill the Prince so that it appeared like an accident. 

Even if a foul play was considered, I should, apparently, never be the suspect.  For five years, I could neither get any such plan nor the opportunity to eliminate Vijaya.     Since he was a child, either you or the Queen were always there to take care of the Prince and therefore making a conspiracy to slay him in the presence of his parents appeared impossible to me. 

Then, you started taking him out for a ride on Chandrika every evening.  An idea came to my mind that if something was made to happen to the horse such that she went completely out of control during your ride, it would certainly endanger the life of the Prince which is what I wanted.

I was aware that such a move could even put your life in danger but I was not bothered about that!  If something happened to you alongwith the Prince, then my path of becoming the ruler of Amrapalli would be realised very soon….!

                                                (To Continue)