The daroga went home and lay down. It was eleven o'clock. When he woke up, it was already eight. He had barely sat up when he was summoned to the telegraph office. He went and listened. The deputy sahib was speaking.
"This Ramanath has created a great mess. He will be lodged somewhere else. All his belongings will have to be sent to the commissioner sahib."
"Was he at the bungalow last night or not?"
The daroga said, "No, sir. Last night he made an excuse and went to his wife."
The telephone said, "Why did you let him go? I am afraid he has told the judge everything. The case will be investigated again. You have made a very serious blunder. All our efforts have gone to waste. You should have forcibly detained him."
The daroga said, "Then did he go to the judge sahib?"
The deputy said, "Yes, sir, that is where he went, and the judge has also broken the rules. He will hear the case again. Rama will change his statement. There is no doubt about it now, and all of this is your bungling. We will all be swept away in that flood. Zohra has betrayed us too."
The daroga immediately set out with all of Ramanath's belongings toward the police commissioner's bungalow. He was so furious with Rama that, had he been able to, he would have swallowed him whole. The wretch had been persuaded so much, treated with such consideration, yet he had betrayed them in the end. Zohra was in league with him too. The excuse about going to scold his wife had merely been a pretext. He would deal with Zohra Begum today itself. Where would she go? He would also have a word with Devi Din.
There is no need to describe the agitation that continued among the police employees for a week. Night and day they wandered about consumed by anxiety. Now they were much more concerned about themselves than about the case. The daroga was the most frightened of all. He could see no hope of saving himself. The inspector and the deputy had placed all the responsibility on his shoulders and completely separated themselves from the matter.
Word spread throughout the city that the case would be heard again. Such an event was entirely unprecedented in the history of English justice. Nothing like it had ever happened. Lawyers debated the legal question among themselves. Could the judge really do this? But the judge was firm. The police officials exerted every possible pressure; the police commissioner even said that this would bring disgrace upon the entire police department. But the judge listened to no one. To take upon his conscience the responsibility for ruining the lives of fifteen men on the basis of false evidence was unbearable to him. He informed the High Court and the Government as well.
Meanwhile the police spent day and night searching for Rama, but he had disappeared somewhere so completely that there was no trace of him. For weeks there was an exchange of official correspondence. Hundreds of pounds of paper were covered in writing. Newspapers published daily criticism of the case. One journalist met Jalpa and printed her statement. Another printed Zohra's statement. These two statements tore the police's case to pieces. Zohra had written that she was paid fifty rupees a day so that she would keep Ramanath distracted and not give him any opportunity to think or reflect. When the police read these statements, they ground their teeth in fury. Zohra and Jalpa both went into hiding somewhere else; otherwise the police would certainly have made them pay for their mischief.
At last, after two months, the judgment was delivered. A civilian was appointed to consider the case. The proceedings were held in a bungalow outside the city so that there would not be too much crowding, yet ten or twelve thousand people gathered there every day. The police made every possible effort to induce one of the accused to become an informer, but their efforts failed.
The daroga could have fabricated new evidence if he wished, but he had become so disgusted by the selfishness of his officers that he did nothing beyond watching the spectacle from a distance. When the officers received all the credit and the subordinates all the blame, what reason did the daroga have to rack his brains over arranging new evidence? In this affair the officers had placed all the blame on the daroga's shoulders; it was because of his negligence that Ramanath had slipped out of their hands. If he had been watched more strictly, how could Jalpa have written to him, and how could he have met her at night? In such circumstances, what else could be done except withdraw the case? The trouble of the stable had been dumped on the monkey's head. The daroga was demoted, and the naib-daroga was transferred to the Terai.
On the day the accused were released, half the city gathered to welcome them. The police released them at ten o'clock at night, but the crowd had gathered anyway. People dragged Jalpa along with them. Devi Din arrived behind them as well. Fruits were showered upon Jalpa, and the sky echoed with cries of "Victory to Jalpa Devi!"
But Ramanath's ordeal was not yet over. It was decided to prosecute him for perjury.