When Soopramanien Kistnen assassinated himself by first drugging himself, smashing his own skull and walking through thick sugarcane fields to finish off the job by burning himself – presumably to hide evidence of any crime against himself – many must have thought that their dark secrets had been buried with him. The police, after what must have been a record inquiry, were quick to conclude it was a suicide. The coroners contradicted each other but the same conclusion was reached. Members of the party he diligently served – and perhaps died for – saw no need to do, or pretend to do, the decent thing: attending the funeral of someone who had been so close to them and comforting his widow and son while these were going through harrowing times. They carried on parading on our national television, preaching to whoever would listen about morality and ethics. 

The first drops of rain on this parade started falling when our colleague Narain Jasodanand broke the first stories in l’express. The press and the Avengers continued the pressure while Safe City cameras conspired with CCTV to blur the picture that was being drawn in many people’s minds. The prime minister then ruled that there was no foul play and that he stood by his then-minister Sawmynaden. Sawmynaden’s court appearances were marked by heavy police presence, road blocks and snipers positioned on rooftops of buildings adjacent to the courtroom. What came out of the court was a picture of a holy man who prays day and night and makes mysterious phone calls at odd hours to talk to his priest. A man who also suffers from bouts of amnesia.  

As everyone was getting ready to go back to their business, Kistnen’s ghost came back from the dead to ask for his pound of flesh. It turned out that not all the dark secrets had been buried with him.  He was smart enough to leave enough information so he gets the justice he was denied on earth. Every time a secret was buried, Kistnen’s invisible hand seems to stretch from the grave to uncover it. From the dead, Kistnen continued the fight he probably died for: exposing a mafia that he apparently used and was used by: various documents in his possession started appearing from the depth of his grave, causing sleepless nights as his grieving widow forced Sawmynaden into the dock. 

Before that ended, a private prosecution is rearing its head against the prime minister himself, using evidence from what is now notoriously known as the Kistnen’s papers. A bitter battle is looming ahead opposing Senior Counsel Antoine Domingue and Désiré Basset, who ironically was sitting at the Electoral Supervisory Commission when Kistnen’s papers first made their appearance! The game between members of government and kistnen’s invisible hand has started. And the stakes are very high as the accusation of swearing a false affidavit by the prime minister, no less, will probably be debated in court soon.  

Who would have thought that Kistnen’s ghost would cause more harm than he would have caused had he remained alive? Who would have imagined that his invisible hand would be more powerful than the most powerful people in this country? 
As the electoral petitions seemed to be heading for certain death in the sense that by the time they are heard, the outcome would perhaps no longer be relevant, Kistnen’s invisible hand stretched further than that of political heavyweights and stirred more trouble in a few months than the latter were able to do in over two years.  

Perhaps from life beyond, Kistnen is having the last laugh!