708. A Silent Interrogation

After Saravanan was questioned by the Sub-Inspector of Police, he was taken to another room in the police station.

Saravanan was not sure whether the Sub-Inspector was convinced by his statement that he didn't commit the crime he was accused of.

Saravanan had feared that the police would beat him up and torture him in various ways. But, no such thing happened. The Sub-Inspector questioned Saravanan intensively. During the course of the interrogation, he threatened Saravanan that if he lied, the consequences would be severe. There was a lathi on the table. But, the Sub-Inspector didn't use it. 

When Saravanan was taken to another room, he observed that a person, not wearing the police uniform, was sitting there. He asked Saravanan to sit on the chair opposite to him. He gazed at Saravanan's face for a few seconds. He then took a book kept on the table and began to read it. At intervals, he would raise his gaze from the book, look at Saravanan for a few minutes and return to the reading again.

After about fifteen minutes, the policemen took Saravanan to the lock-up in the station and locked him up inside.

After sometime, the door of the lock-up was opened. The Sub-Inspector entered the lock-up. He had the lathi in his hand. Even as Saravanan looked at the Sub-Inspector with apprehension, the lathi hit his body. 

After a few minutes, Saravanan confessed to the crime. 

"Sir! Is what we have been doing right?" Constable Sekar asked the Sub-Inspector. 

"Earlier, we used to beat up every one who was suspected to be involved in a crime. But, nowadays, we don't beat up all the suspects. We question a suspect and if he doesn't accept his guilt, we send him to Mr. Sundar. Mr. Sundar looks at the suspect's face for some time and then tells us whether the suspect is guilty, whether he has been speaking the truth, what he is thinking at the moment etc. If he says the suspect is speaking the truth, we don't release the suspect immediately. We continue to hold him in custody and question him again and again. In most of the cases, the person cleared by Mr. Sundar has turned out to be innocent. On several occasions, we have caught the real culprit and released the suspect. Otherwise, we would release the suspect only after we are convinced that he is not guilty, based on repeated questioning. But, if Mr. Sundar says that a suspect is lying, we question the suspect more intensively and even beat him up, if required. In most of the cases, such suspects confess to the crime, after a while! By following this procedure, we minimize the chances of an innocent person getting beaten up, because of the suspicion we have on them" explained the Sub-Inspector.

"But, this procedure is not as per the law."

"We are not violating the law. Sundar is a retired police officer. By virtue of his long experience in the police department, he has acquired the skill of finding out whether the person is speaking the truth, just by observing his face for a while. We are making use of his skill and experience. But, we are not entirely going by Mr. Sundar;s judgement. We use his judgement as a guide, but make our own assessment" said the Sub-Inspector.

Thirukkural
Section 2

Materialism

Chapter 71
Divining the Mind

Verse 708 (in Tamil):
mugam nOkki niRka amaiyum agam nOkki
uRRadhu uNarvArp peRin.

Meaning:

Like a mirror showing he hues of the objects near it, the face betrays the mood of the mind. 

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'iraNdAvadhu visAraNai' by the same author.) 

Verse 709 (Soon)
Verse 707