Chapter 3: Normally Abnormal
Sekhar said, "I wanted to show you these people so that we can have a clear understanding of what exactly we are dealing with." We left from there.
We went to see Bobby's parents. His father greeted us and took us into their house. They were willing to provide all the details we were looking for, despite many investigations that had happened earlier.
"When was the first time you found that Bobby was having health issues?" Sekhar asked them.
"We found it when Bobby was two years old," replied his father.
"Then what took so long to start the treatment? The medical history reports show that treatment was started at the age of five years." I asked them.
"Doctors have performed all kind of behavioural, motor and sensory tests. But the reports appeared negative and nothing seemed so serious," said Bobby's father.
"Sounds strange! Can you please show us the reports once?" I asked them, we were a little surprised to hear even though the kid showed symptoms, the reports had come out negative.
"You already have those reports with you. The detailed reports are with the NCHDM. I mean, with the National Child Health Development and Management center where the tests happened. While these tests were done, we used to leave Bobby with them as per their instructions and picked him up at end of the day," explained his father.
After a detailed discussion, we felt there was nothing more that Bobby's parents could provide us and we left from there.
"Jai, let us go and visit the NCHDM and look for more information," said Sekhar. We left for NCHDM.
At the center, we came to know that the psychologist and neurologist who had diagnosed Bobby were out of India on an international assignment and would only return after six months.
We discussed about the case with the chief consultant of NCHDM and asked for help. The chief consultant agreed to provide the required details.
"Can you please help us by providing the diagnosis reports of Bobby?" I requested.
The chief consultant provided a similar report to what we already had. I asked him, "Will you
be able to share the detailed observation report, which will have all the day-to-day data and interpretations?"
"All those day-to-day observation details are captured using live diagnosis software and those are fed into a centralized system, which in turn provides the insights and gives out a final report."
"In that case, will you be able to provide us with the day-to-day observation data?" I asked.
He thought for a moment, asked us to wait until he secured access and approvals for sharing the reports. Later, he took us inside a central server room. It had big display screens. All the patients' data was was being shown on those screens.
We went near a system, the chief consultant opened an account related to Bobby. It showed all the observation parameters. The observations for behaviour and neurology showed normal for Bobby from the time when he was two years old.
However, from the fifth year onward, they started showing the symptoms of autism. The reports confirm autism only when Bobby turned five.
"Strange, how can the system show everything normal when the kid exhibited symptoms?
Do the doctors who diagnosed Bobby have sufficient expertise?" Sekhar raised a doubt to the chief consultant.
The chief consultant replied, "Yes, they are experts with twenty years of experience and are part of the advisory board for our government."
"Thanks for sharing the required information. We will come back again, in case any clarifications are required." We thanked him and came out from the NCHDM.
"Sekhar, do you think the reports were manipulated?" I asked Sekhar.
"I think so. How can the reports show something quite opposite to reality? But we cannot suspect the expert doctors as well. This is putting us in a deadlock situation."
Whatever Sekhar had said was correct. There could not have been a conflict between what is observed and what is reported. But I felt that it was not over. We needed to find a way ahead to solve this. We started looking into Case Four.
"Will you help in understanding the details of Case Four?" I asked Sekhar.
"Case Four victim suffered from Internet Addiction Syndrome. He had a troubled
relationship with parents, friends and peers. Spent majority of his time on Internet in a closed room. He never interacted with anyone. Finally, he was diagnosed with NEAR syndrome." Sekhar paused for while.
"How old was he then?" I asked Sekhar.
"He was sixteen years old when he died." He replied.
"Let us try to access his browsing history to find out what he was up to on the Internet and also talk to his parents." I said.
We visited his parents and managed to get the teenager's laptop and the activity history from the Internet service provider.
Upon examining the activity history, some astonishing facts surfaced. He spent his time on Internet searching for articles to harass and torture people. He started this at the age of eight.
Gradually, search themes changed to looking for the process to create bombs and biological weapons.
At some point in time, he started interacting with terrorist groups and helped them with information. In return, he did not gain anything
monetary but he learnt techniques for creating bombs and weapons from those groups.
On his health front, doctors prescribed drugs to treat NEAR syndrome. His parents never sought any treatment for his Internet Addiction Syndrome. They were under the impression that it was common for kids his age to be hooked onto the Internet.
They mentioned that he was a child abuse victim. When he was six years old, one of his relatives had abducted him and sexually abused him. As a result, the kid was scared to go school or meet anyone.
After sometime, they moved to a different place and gradually he became normal. Later, he started spending long hours on the Internet instead of meeting or talking to anyone.
Before his death, he was about to create a biological weapon that could kill thousands of people in a big city. He gathered all the material required to create the weapon from local grocery stores, fertilizer stores and some from a local arms supplier.
His death happened just before he could complete the assembly and test it.
"Oh! Good god, he died otherwise he could have caused a lot of destruction and killed
many innocent people," cried Sekhar. "His circumstances made him turn into such a bad kid, the experiences he had at a very tender age turned him into maniac."
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