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🔓 Solution Reveal

CASE 07
🔒

SEALED

Submit all accusations first.

🎨

THE KILLER IS:

POOJA AGARWAL

Partner. Forger. Patient poisoner.

The Crime

Pooja knew Jagdish was going to break before he told her. Twelve days before his death, she started bringing him his morning chai. Daily. Warm. Dosed.

She had the arsenic in the storeroom — a relic from old canvas preservation supplies that nobody used anymore. She had the key. Meena didn't question the new routine. Jagdish seemed to enjoy the attention, even as his stomach started failing.

On the evening of May 9, she prepared a flask, set it on his desk, said she had an early train. By 6 AM she was at Jaipur Junction. By 10:40 she was in Jodhpur. By 10:05 AM, Meena had found Jagdish in his chair.

Perfect alibi. Two mistakes: she left her fingerprints on the canister. And on the flask.

Scoring

CategoryMax Points
Correct killer50
Correct motive (forgery exposure + betrayal deal)30
Correct method (chronic arsenic in chai; pre-prepared flask)20
Key evidence (chai routine + flask fingerprints)20
Each red herring10 (max 30)
TOTAL150
📖 Case Debrief
Read after scoring is complete. Discuss with the group.
What Each Red Herring Was Designed to Do
🎭 Inspector Mahesh Yadav (police) first-responder conflict
His history of accepting quarterly payments from the gallery to overlook import irregularities + his role as first responder = strong cover-up appearance. But station duty logs place him at Jaipur Central Police Station from 8 PM on 9 May to 8 AM on 10 May — full night shift confirmed.
🎭 Sunita Devi (wife) inheritance motive
Wife with access to the home and a ₹22 crore gallery inheritance at stake. But she was visiting her sister in Ajmer from 3–11 May — confirmed by phone records and her sister's statement. Absent throughout the entire poisoning window.
🎭 Ramesh Trivedi (Christie's) auction profit motive
Financial interest in the auction + connection to forged paintings. But he was in Mumbai throughout and had zero physical access to Jagdish.
The Hardest Connection in This Case
The arsenic canister in the gallery's art restoration chemical store. Players naturally look for poison in medical or personal contexts. The gallery keeps arsenic-based compounds for restoration work — and it's documented in a maintenance log alongside legitimate restoration chemicals. Connecting the poison source to Pooja's access to that storage room is the critical link.
What Most Groups Miss
The chai routine predates the murder decision. Evidence shows Pooja began the morning chai delivery habit over 10 days before Jagdish's death. Most groups reconstruct the poisoning mechanism but miss the evidence that this was built over time — not improvised. That level of premeditation changes everything.
Discussion Questions
  • This is the only multi-day case — how did that change your investigation approach?
  • The day-of alibi is completely irrelevant here. When did your group realize that?
  • Did anyone find the arsenic in the art restoration supplies without being guided there?
  • What does 10 days of deliberate, patient poisoning tell you about the killer's psychology?
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