A fax comes in...
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#2
Your honour,
As agreed, I will begin sending you copies of the documentation we have been compiling. Once again sorry for the piecemeal nature of these deliveries but I know you are eager to start your work. I am starting today with the first email of many.
Please find attached the phone transcripts for Mr Tim Miller for the 5th of August, 2007.
Due to file size considerations, I will send the rest in a separate communication. Audio files also available upon request.
Regards,
Vikram Chowdury.
Attachment: transcripts-05-03-2008.pdf
#3
Your honour,
Besides all the information that is available via conventional means through the work of the prosecution and the investigators, Mrs Saskia Miller also produced much interesting material.
She was an avid writer, working daily on both her diaries and the first draft of her unpublished novel. We can safely assume a higher degree of verisimilitude in her diary than in the largely autobiographical novel. However, your honour, it is my belief that there are details and episodes in that draft novel which are drawn straight from her life. Episodes which she did not have the openness to disclose in the diary, being as she says an instrument to self-regulate her humour in distressful times.
Therefore please find attached her diary entries for the 11Th of August, 2007. I will send you, as soon as I have prepared it, a substantial part of her novel which deals with the circumstances presented in the diary.
Yours in sincerity,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: diary-entries-17-03-08.pdf
#4
Your honour,
This is the first chapter from Saskia Miller's draft novel which I feel is relevant to your understanding of Mr Tim Miller and what has occurred. It details his first night in India and is a clear sign of his failing mental health. As I mentioned previously, we have no way of knowing how related this fictitious character Jeremy Gould is to Mr Miller. However, the similarities are staggering and surely not coincidental.
I must warn you that from this chapter onwards the content of Saskia's fiction takes a turn for the nasty and grotesque. If at any point you feel that it is too much to bear and you wish to receive no more news, please let me know. I understand fully that the sort of evidence I am sending you at the moment would not be admissible in court and I appreciate your lassitude in accepting and reading it.
Devotedly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: draft-novel-24-03-2008.pdf
#5
Your honour,
The continuation from my last email.
Attentively,
V. Chowdury
Attachment: draft-novel-31-03-2008.pdf
#6
Your honour,
I bring you chapter 25 from Saskia's draft novel.
I must point out some inaccuracies in this text. While it is true that traffic in India is less than idyllic, it certainly is not as bad as described. Also, the paan she refers to, is neither a hallucinogenic nor addictive. In its most extreme recipe, paan will have tobacco leaves in it, but no paan in existence would create the effect she describes.
I am beginning to suspect there is a strong anti-India, anti-Asia bias in Mrs. Miller's writing. Was this influenced by her husband's views? Or did it originate spontaneously? We will never know.
Respectfully,
V. Chowdury
Attachment: draft-novel-13-04-2008.pdf
#7
Your Honour,
It is my understanding that this exchange of emails is completely off-the-record and confidential. Your last email raised some issues regarding this so I would like to clear any and all ambiguities there might exist.
I will present as evidence most of the material I have sent you, but not all of it for obvious reasons. The material which is restricted to these emails is to be kept between us at all times and, if possible, deleted on your side once it has been viewed. Kindly let me know if that was not your understanding.
Yours confidentially,
Vikram Chowdury
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X xxxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxx xxxxx xxxxxxx X xxxx xxx xxxx xxx xxxxxxxx xxxx X xxxxx xxxxxxxx xx xxxxxxxxx xx xxxxxxxxxxxxx. X xx xxxx xxx xxxxxxxx xx xxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx xxxx x xxxxx xxx xxxx xxxx xx xxxxx xxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxxx, xx X xxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xx xxxxxx.
Xxxxxxx,
Xx Xxxxxxx Xxxxx
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Your honour,
Immense thanks and gratitudes for your discretion.
In this latest series of emails I have included chapters from Mrs. Miller's draft novel. On the last chapter I sent you, Mr Miller's fictional alter ego was just about to enter a meeting at Rana Motors. I won't bother you with chapter 26 from the draft novel as I have managed to source something far better. I have acquired Mr Miller's notes from that exact meeting.
How I got them is besides the point, suffice to say that the world of business has some very unethical practices which in this case have helped our quest for truth.
From these notes, I must again stress that the traditional Indian paan does not have any side-effects. What Mr Miller's driver gave him is a mystery to me. Maybe the leaves were laced with LSD or another hallucinogenic?
Yours gratefully,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: notes-meeting-19-04-2008.pdf
#8
Your honour,
After last week's detour through Mr. Miller's disturbed mind, we return once again to his wife's draft novel.
It might be of interest to you I have not managed to locate any of the characters so far depicted in this novel. There is no Harshad, no Yuvraj, and I could find no record of any man with an almost severed thumb checking into a local hospital that evening. Of course, in my country's society such matters tend to remain in the private sphere as much as possible. How would the unfortunate man justify the injury to his wife?
Yours narratively,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: draft-novel-28-04-2008.pdf
#9
Your honour,
Since last week, I have contacted Ealing Engineering PLC. As you will undoubtedly remember, this is the company which employed Mr. Miller until last year. They understood the situation at hand and our predicament. They were somewhat apologetic initially, but I quickly dismissed that attitude. We are all working towards the same goal, are we not? A fairer, safer and more just world, in which we can raise our children trusting them to be secure, and to be avenged if not.
I understand my ideals might not be as modern as some of our colleagues, but they are my ideals. Regardless, the MD (managing director) at Ealing Engineering was very cooperative and provided me with the data stored in Mr Miller's phone at the time of his redundancy. I had initially asked for the device itself, but they contested that it had key business information which could not be disclosed unless there was a court order in that sense. I remember being unhappy at the time, but after I got back to my office and went through the data, my sadness turned to an all-encompassing happiness - the data proved to be very, very interesting.
Along with many text messages, emails and pictures, I found a video on Mr Miller's former phone. Judging by its timestamp we can assume this video was shot right after Mr Miller left the Mughal Motors underground parking garage. He films his surroundings as the taxi drives him back to the hotel while at the same time, he rambles about the past and how he feels. There are some surprising revelations in his ramblings, especially his history of violence.
The video was shot using a cameraphone so the quality of both image and audio is terrible. Therefore, I feel it is pointless to send your honour the integral video. My team has gone to great pains to clean up the images and audio so they are both intelligible. I am sending you the highlights of both in an easier to read format. There is so much material overall that I will make this a two-part communication with the second half coming next week.
Yours dividedly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: video-transcript-05-05-2008.pdf
#10
Your honour,
I have attached the rest of the video transcript to this message.
While we can safely assume that this 'Hrishi' is the same driver who appears in the draft novel as 'Harshad', without a last name he is impossible to track. Even with that last name, it might still prove a fruitless task, as there are many Indian citizens with no records to speak of.
It is my strong and utmost belief that this thread is beginning to unravel in a way that clearly delineates Mr Miller's dealings while in India. They are not a thing of beauty. Myself, I have travelled on the same streets and dealt with the same people Mr Miller has, yet have always managed to stay clear of trouble. But perhaps that is exactly what draws us to this case.
Yours to the utmost,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: video-transcript-17-05-2008.pdf
#11
Your honour,
Your actions have surprised me. When we began this fruitful exchange of communication earlier this year, there had been an tacit agreement between us - you did not ask what were my sources, and I kept providing the information at a steady pace and with full disclosure and openness.
As such, I was not expecting your representatives to, pardon the expression, barge into my office demanding to take away computers and folders related to this case. It was an event completely incogitable for me at the time and I had no choice but to provide them with what they wanted. It doesn't matter, your honour. These sensitive files are stored somewhere else, and all your officers have taken are receipts, contacts, and other general administration paperwork. Shall I praise them for their efforts or have you already?
Nonetheless, the question burning your mind is how I have obtained these videos, pictures, notes, and, most of all, telephone conversations. How did I know that Mr Miller was about to transcend his status as a law-abiding executive into someone worthy of investigation? The answer to that question will remain unanswered for now.
In the meantime, I present you with the transcript of a recording from one of our telephone tappings. Mr Miller had been 'abducted' (his words) and this is a record of the single phone call he managed to make to his wife during that time.
Enjoy.
Yours suprisedly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: transcripts-09-06-2008.pdf
#12
Your honour,
Myself and my colleagues were planning on withholding the rest of this transcript from you until at least a month from now. Surely we must have whetted your curiosity?
This second and final part of the transcript takes on a fantastical tone that makes Saskia's draft novel seem like a journalist's report. What are we to make of it? Mad ramblings of a man driven over the edge by constant estrangement from friends, family and country? Simple, but dire, consequences of substance abuse? Or is there an actual biological and physiological reason for the Indian caste system, with the bottom-feeders displaying anomalies of body as well as mind to go with their other debasement?
What is your opinion, your honour? Formulate the reply carefully in your mind, for it will condition the reading of the text which is attached to this email.
Yours ... fantastically,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: transcripts-16-06-2008.pdf
#13
Your honour,
Mr Miller's persistence in trying to make a profit from his 'discovery' continued. He missed his flight back to London, postponing it indefinitely. Instead, he prefered to stay in India looking for investors for his new product.
Attached, please find the business proposal Mr Miller was putting in front of each and every Indian investor he could find. Bizarre isn't it? To create such a detailed business proposal for something which doesn't exist? Surely he would be found out eventually.
Regardless, we have gained two important leads from this document:
One is the nutritionist that provided the verbatim - Graham Woodfield; the other is noted Indian investor Virender Bahtti.
The former apparently saw and tasted the paan, while the latter we know was contacted and met Mr Miller in person. I will follow these leads during the following week, starting with Mr Bahtti.
Yours investingly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: business-proposal-23-06-2008.pdf
#14
Your honour,
I have just returned from a visit to Virender Bahtti's house. A lot has transpired during this visit. I am still not sure what to make of it all, but I am writing it down and sending to you - maybe your clearer head at this time can help our common understanding of it?
It seems every attempt to find answers, returns more questions. This will of course happen until there are no more questions. Then, all the answers will come forward, into our welcoming minds, ready to structure and organise them into their own appropriate compartments.
The first part of my report I will send today along with this email. The second and third parts I will send at a later date as I now I must rest and recover.
Yours pharaonically,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: report-30-06-2008.pdf
#15
Your honour,
My report continues in this email (attached).
Your impression might be that I am being hyperbolic in some of my descriptions, playing up the extreme luxury and wealth that I have witnessed. You might think I am doing this to spice up the reports and make them an alluring feast for the senses. You might also believe I do it to exalt a misplaced sense of nationalistic pride, taking credit as an Indian for the worldwide success of a countryman.
Any and all of these statements are incorrect.
In my report I merely state what I have witnessed. You can trust me to have been as impartial as a camera: my eyes the lenses, my brain the film on which the images were imprinted.
I only wish I had my own pictures to go with the words. Regardless, and despite the tight security and circumspection prized by Mr Bahtti, some of his more rebellious staff have taken pictures and posted them on-line. I send you only a small sample (1 page) of what can be found through careful browsing.
Yours impartially,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: report-07-07-2008.pdf
#16
Your honour,
This is the third and final instalment of the report covering my visit to Mr Bahtti's house.
Ultimately, things proved frustrated and disappointing. I half-expected my expedition to be so, but I am the sort of person who always hopes for the best, which in this situation did not occur. As you will see from the report, there was at least one positive, although I am not holding my breath.
Another situation which I believe warrants my commentary is your recent criticism of my writing. I understand that I am not the most economical of wordsmiths. However, if I go into such detailed descriptions of my surroundings, it is because I feel that they are important to the report. I have certainly not been thrifty with my discourse for today's report.
Yours granularly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: report-14-07-2008.pdf
#17
YOUR HONOUR,
PLEASE DELETE THE EMAIL BELOW WITHOUT READING IT. IT CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION MEANT ONLY FOR INTERNAL USE IN OUR OFFICE.
ITS CONTENT HAS BEEN CORRUPTED AND WE CANNOT ACCEPT ANY LIABILITY FOR ITS CONTENT.
YOURS WORRIEDLY,
Vikram Chowdury
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ishant Chautala
Date: 2008/8/4
Subject: Report #88158/454-01
To: Vikram Chowdury
CC: XXXX XXXXXX
Dear Mr. Chowdury,
Please find attached the report for yesterday's session - #88158/454-01.
I've made a point of writing in the report everything that occurred during the session, referring back to the video and audio recordings as well as my extensive notes. There were also some occasional witnesses, overhearing the proceedings in the corridor, and I've added their input as well.
Full source materials can be obtained from Mrs. Prasad at the archives. I've filed the tapes w/ yesterday's date, by the way.
Cheers,
I. Chautala
Attachment: report-04-08-2008.pdf
#18
Your honour,
After the debacle in the tower, my quest for information on this case seemed to have hit a wall. The leaves I obtained from Bahtti's little helpers were of course a lead I was eager to follow. So what did I do? I sent them to Prakash Labs to be examined, without stopping to think that they might not be what they seem.
And so I received the shameful fax attached to this email. My only hope is that my lack of wisdom and restraint has not compromised my career...
Yours ashamedly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachments:
fax-21-07-2008.pdf
#19
Your honour,
After my recent misadventures, I fear you might have the impression that I have personalized this case in some misguided attempt at media exposure and notoriety (if not outright fame). Let me assure you this is not so.
I stand to gain very little from this whole affair. It is a very tough set of circumstances to work with and, to be honest, I cannot see a positive ending as the most likely outcome.
Both of these factors tie in with this email. It neither mentions Vikram Chowdury at any point, nor does it significantly contribute to a conviction. Rather, it shines some light on Tim Miller's dealings while in India, but that is it.
We know he visited two people with his business proposal: Mr Bahtti and Dr Graham Woodfield. I have already interviewed Bahtti, but have had no luck in reaching Dr Woodfield. Despite this I have compiled some materials which can help us to understand how the business meeting between Woodfield and Miller went.
These materials take the form of a series of advertisements for Dr Woodfield's diet pills. This product seems to share many similarities with the paan (please refer to the business proposal I sent earlier) in terms of origin, manufacture and results. It is also worth mentioning that these miraculous diet pills appeared roughly 4 months after the business meeting between the two Englishmen in India. Coincidence? You be the judge (joke intended).
Finally, the official papers submitted for the diet pills's registration has no mention of Tim Miller.
Yours humbly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachments: ads-11-08-2008.pdf
#20
Your honour,
At this stage of Mr Miller's stay in India he was running into serious difficulties. His business proposal had gone nowhere. He had invested money into it - networking, hiring staff, paying for several more weeks at the luxury hotel and bribing minor government officials and other people he perceived as important. All this to no avail.
This put a severe strain on his finances and also on his family situation back in the UK.
The emails attached clearly illustrate this situation. While mere words (and in this case, bytes of information) cannot express Miller's despair at his situation, we can imagine it, no? To be in a foreign country with no money, no friends, no plans and nowhere to go back to...
Yours despairingly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: emails-18-08-2008.pdf
#21
Your honour,
Tim's problems just seemed to pile up on top of each other with no solution in sight for any of them. Problems at home, problems with his business partners, financial problems, personal problems... and one might even say problems with his own consciousness and common sense! Could Tim be breaking down at this stage? After all he had gone through, should we pity him? Of course not.
These phone transcripts materialize perfectly what I have just described. I hope you share my opinion that, no matter how much pain Tim was in, he deserved all of it.
Yours deservingly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: transcripts-25-08-2008.pdf
#22
Your honour,
This time I am sending you the last fragments we have of Saskia Miller's unpublished novel.
As you might recall, the last time I sent you any pages from her draft novel, we were still in chapter 27. The twenty chapters between chapter 27 and the chapters I am sending now (numbers 48, 49, 50) are missing. My theory is that Saskia stopped writing them in sequence and jumped straight to the grand finale.
Overall, this would make sense as the writing here feels a bit rushed. In just a few paragraphs Jeremy (Tim's alter ego), goes from being alive and healthy to dying a horrible death. Was Saskia exacting a vicarious revenge on Tim through her writing? I tend to subscribe this view.
Regardless, this is but one of Tim's many deaths, and perhaps the most gruesome.
Yours literarily,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: draft-novel-01-09-2008.pdf
#23
Your honour,
You might recall that in my last communication I referred to Mr Miller having many deaths. The excerpts from Saskia Miller's novel I had sent earlier show such a death - killed by his business partners after all his money, and worth, had been exhausted.
Another of Tim's fictitious deaths is the one I present here. The segment was also written by Saskia, possibly as an alternate ending to her novel. The end result is the same, but it shows a different side to our protagonist. Instead of the meek, gullible, victim of the other version, this one is empowered, strong, and himself a perpetrator of violence.
It stands to reason that Saskia would be a good judge of Tim's character. So, what shall we make of the two versions? Did she consider him capable of such a wide span of behaviour? It is certain she was not keen on him at this time, as both versions are devoid of humanity and capable of hideous deeds to achieve their goals, but still there is a gulf between the two.
What do you make of it? Who is the real Tim Miller after all?
Yours dividedly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: draft-novel-21-09-2008.pdf
#24
Your honour,
This email is a milestone: it is the last that features any of Tim Miller's misadventures in India. It is also perhaps the most inconclusive.
I am sending you the scan of a suicide note of sorts which I strongly suspect having been written by Mr Miller himself. It was found in a shanty town along with two bodies the day after Tim Miller flew back to the UK. The similarities to the novel excerpts I have sent previously are glaring even to the most sceptical, are they not?
It should also be noted that the handwriting strongly resembles Tim's, and that the paper is branded Mughal Motors as well. Coincidence? The more this tale unfolds, the more it complicates but one thing seems obvious to me: there are no coincidences.
So, was Tim the killer? Or was he just a witness? If so, was he at the scene voluntarily or was he forced? Was he a bystander or an accessory to murder?
Regardless, the somewhat pathetic suicide note is another of Mr Miller's deaths, but not the last or definitive one.
Yours inconclusively,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: suicide-note-28-09-08.pdf
#25
Your honour,
After all this time, I feel it is my duty to apologise for the multiplicity of formats I have used to state my case. As you know, this choice was out of my control. I do my best to be just a conduit through which the information arrives at your honour's possession. The only editing I do, if it can be called that, is to filter the data chronologically. This is only to make it easier to understand and to establish a clear psychological timeline and progression for the acts we are referring.
Regarding this email's attachments, they are, once again, in a new format.
Upon Tim's arrival in London after the Indian follies, he was hard-pressed for cash. Bank accounts blocked, credit cards cancelled and no one to turn to for credit. The only money he had, if it could be called that, was on his prepaid UK mobile phone. Creatively, he spent his time travelling through London remembering older (and happier) times, while taking pictures which he sent to Saskia along with some text.
I have compiled these picture/text messages in two thematically-related batches, the first of which I am sending along with this email. It is clear that Tim was stalking Saskia at this point, although his intentions were not clear.
Yours pictorially,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: mms-06-10-2008.pdf
#26
Your honour,
In the document that I sent last week, we witnessed him travelling all over London, documenting his memories with pictures taken on relevant locations and tormenting his wife with desperate abusive messages. For this second batch, the mood changes somewhat.
All the pictures were taken in the same street, the address of which corresponds to our records for Mr Miller's home. The memories are now more sentimental and somewhat more personal, nostalgic for a time long past that due to Mr Miller's actions is now inaccessible. The thirteenth message in this document is the last one Tim Miller sent. At the time we came across his mobile, the last remaining credit was exactly £0.00.
Yours depletedly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: mms-12-10-2008.pdf
#27
Your honour,
This is the very last document authored by Saskia Miller that I have. It does not advance our perception of the events, but I felt it was nonetheless important out of a sense of completion if nothing else.
Saskia's disorientation is mirrored by my own feelings. Through my research in this case, I have been exposed to so many sources and materials that it is very difficult to piece together the truth. Is there one ready to be found? Whatever the answer, we must continue; we must endure until all options are exhausted. Out of this elimination, only one version, one account of the events will remain.
Saskia feared the factual elements would press too hard on her novel and crush it. We are not dealing in fiction here, are we your honour? As such, we will trudge on, bringing in the clues from all we can find and merging them with the ethics and morals we are committed to. We can do no other.
Yours truthfully,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: diary-entries-15-10-08.pdf
#28
Your honour,
My reservoir of evidence has run dry. I am now wringing the very last drops of information - it is not much, but it is what I have.
These are drawings done by Daniel Miller, Tim and Saskia's son. I have selected the ones I found to be most relevant to this case. Their interpretation is not one hundred percent straightforward, nor do they show explicitly what was going on in the Miller household and in his parents' lives. Still, they do provide some interesting clues.
Together with each drawing is Danny's explanation of what it means. It is in essence a dialogue between myself and Danny, using the drawings as a record of his memories and unconscious feelings. I tried not to be too penetrating with my questions due to the child's mental fragility at this time, but, as usual, obtaining the truth was the ultimate goal.
Yours graphically,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: drawings-26-10-2008.pdf
#29
Your honour,
I can only apologise for wasting your time with my emails on the Miller family tragedy. These have been testing months for myself and I somehow thought that sharing this information would bring me some relief.
I was wrong.
The sense of loss and injustice I feel can only heal with time, far more time than has already passed.
So what remains for me now, your honour? Maybe to find a new case in which to invest my energy? A new case that raises all the issues I care about; a new case that is about ordinary people controlled by desires and impulses that are far larger than them. This new case will be a fresh beginning for both of us. I will keep aloof from its perpetrators and victims, observing from afar with a discerning and critical eye, making the connections, collecting information and helping shape your opinion. There will be no emotional involvement this time, just the competence of cold professionalism.
I believe with all my heart and dedication that this approach will work. The experience gained through the Miller case will help me immensely in the future. In fact, thinking about future cases reminds me of something I read about in this morning's newspaper - the Suffolk Slasher. Have you read or heard about him, your honour? Whatever your answer, expect an email from me on this case within the next week or so.
Yours apologetically yet excitedly,
Vikram Chowdury
Attachment: emails-02-11-2008.pdf
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