The Great Indian Murder is a mystery series adapted from Vikas Swarup’s novel, ‘Six Suspects’ which revolves around the murder of Vicky Rai and the several suspects thought to be responsible.
Summary
Vicky Rai (Jatin Goswami) is a well-known businessman and the son of a politician, Jagganath Rai (Ashutosh Rana). When he needs to appease a Nigerian government official for some favours, he uses an up and coming actress as a tribute. After she refuses to lower herself to that level, he has two minors arranged for the official.
He’s later forced to cover up their deaths, but when the car carrying their bodies is apprehended, he is sent to jail. After three years, he is acquitted and released after some very strategic bribes to the investigating officials. Vicky decides to throw a party at his Delhi farmhouse to celebrate his freedom.
Several guests are present for this party, many of whom are not huge fans of Vicky. During a fireworks display, Vicky is shot in the chest and murdered. All the guests are checked on the way out and two individuals are found with guns on their person and detained by the police.
Jagganath Rai is planning on using this tragedy as a means to gain political power in his home state of Chattisgarh with the help of the Delhi CM and the lead investigator of the CBI, Suraj Yadav (Pratik Gandhi). Assisting Suraj is the Sudha Bharadwaj (Richa Chadha) of the Delhi police. She was one of the officials bribed by Vicky to aid in his acquittal.
Suraj is ordered to make the investigation appear as if it points towards the current CM of Chattisgarh as the main culprit. The initial two suspects found at the party with guns were Munna (Shashank Arora), a lowly thief from the slums, and Eketi (Mani PR), a tribal man from Andaman who barely speaks Hindi or English.
Munna was said to be walking around flaunting a lot of money recently and the police think it was his payment for taking out Vicky. He claims that he had stolen that money from somebody on the street. When his friend is found murdered at their usual hangout, he shares the story with them.
Munna had seen someone walking with a big black bag walking very nervously and so he took and chance and grabbed it. He was chased by some men but he managed to escape. When he found that money in the bag, he began spending it leisurely until the men who were chasing him caught up.
They killed his friend and took back the bag. Munna managed to escape and then bought a gun for his protection.
Eketi tries to explain that he was only looking for his god, an idol from his village that was stolen and brought to Delhi. He was arrested in Chennai on an unrelated case and they assume that he’s a Nigerian man named Michael Busari. He pleads with his innocence and tells them that he was duped by the real Michael.
He travelled several leads with Ashok Rajput (Sharib Hashmi), a welfare officer who offered to help him get the idol back. Ashok had told him that the idol is at Vicky Rai’s farmhouse and told him where to go.
Sudha and her junior officer Manjot (Guneet Singh) are digging into Munna’s story which leads towards a kidnapping plot engineered by Billu Biryani (Hemanth Mahaur). When they catch Billu, he is account confirms that Munna was innocent and just at the wrong place at the wrong time. While looking through photos from the night, they find a picture of former IAS officer, Mohan Kumar (Raghuvir Yadav) with a gun.
They head over to his house to question him and are informed that he is suffering from a split personality with his alter being that of Mahatma Gandhi. While in that state he begins to lead the celibate lifestyle that the real Gandhiji led, getting rid of all the alcohol he had in his house, giving away his wealth rather generously, and cutting ties with his mistress.
Mohan served as a director in Vicky’s company and the two of them clashed constantly due to their ego’s. That’s why Mohan had a reason to hurt Vicky. He had visited the party as he alters but when he got into an altercation with Vicky, he was back to being Mohan and decided to get his gun from the car.
He fired the shot, but Suraj is convinced that it could not have hit Vicky given where Mohan was standing. He manages to prove his theory when he finds a bullet in the trash from the party.
A video is found on Billu’s phone of Munna and Ritu Rai (Rucha Inamdar) sharing an intimate moment. When they question him, he tells them that the two of them were a couple. He planned on helping her escape her abusive household where Vicky harassed her by getting her tickets to London.
Ritu confirms this story and once again proves that Munna is innocent. Suraj finds some radical leftist literature in the room where Eketi was staying. Using this evidence and the fact that the CM of Chattisgarh was a leftist during his college days, allows Suraj to fabricate a story where the murder of Vicky was engineered by the CM with the help of Naxals, who sent Eketi to kill Jagganath instead.
Sudha and Manjot wonder why Ashok wasn’t called in for questioning to support Eketi’s claims, so Sudha sends Manjot to Jaisalmer to confirm his story.
Ending of The Great Indian Murder explained in detail (Episode 9: Dhokha):
A family scorned
Manjot reaches the address that Sudha had given him so that can locate Ashok Rajput. His brother was a forest official who was involved in a case against Vicky Rai many years ago when he shot a deer.
Vicky had managed to bribe the other officials, but when Ashok’s brother refused to be bought, he was killed before he could testify against Vicky in court.
Ashok took an oath to take revenge against Vicky for his crimes so that his brother’s soul can finally rest in peace.
Political games aplenty
With the appropriate seeds planted, Suraj meets with Jagganath Rai and the Delhi CM to update them on the theory behind their investigation and how it points towards the Chattisgarh CM.
Jagganath and the others are given some information which leads them to believe that his phone is being tapped and that there is an independent journalist who plans to expose this conspiracy.
Ashok is shown planting the idol at Vicky Rai’s place and then taking a shot at him during the party, then he stuffs the gun in Eketi’s bag so that he can take the fall. Manjot tells Sudha that the Jaisalmer lead was a dead-end, even though it wasn’t. He then calls Suraj to reveal that he’s also corrupt and trying to influence the investigation.
A sad and unnecessary demise
Eketi breaks out of his cell and looks around the police station for the idol. He finds it broken in the evidence room when another officer finds him and locks him in there. The real idol is shown to be at Ashok’s house where Ashok believes it will be a curse, just as it has been to all the places ever since it was stolen.
Suraj is called back to the police station to deal with Eketi. He goes into the evidence room where Eketi approaches him with the broken idol and asks him where the real one is. Suraj tells him to run away but when Eketi isn’t able to find another way out he is shot down.
Suraj calls Sudha to inform her that Eketi tried to escape and was killed in the process. Then the scene of Vicky’s murder is revisited with the emergence of a third shooter whose identity is kept hidden. That brings an end to the season.
Also Read: The Great Indian Murder review: A web of lies and deceit that keeps you wrapped up