Dr Neogi, a bachelor, lived alone with a manservant, Hari, who was helped by Robby, the robot. The reception had a record of Hari leaving on the evening of the murder and Kalu, a local goon, coming in shortly afterwards. Nobody came to or left the flat after that.
CID’s inspector Chatterjee took charge completely puzzled. He consulted Anjana Dutta, who had been a junior colleague but now ran the AD Detective Agency. Anjana and her young nephew Pintu listened to him eagerly. Inspector Chatterjee said, “There was the Robacuum, a vacuum cleaner, plugged to a socket. Robacuum alternates between cleaning and charging up. It has a wireless control centre and can be guided. Robby, another robot, slightly over four feet tall with a smiling face, was sitting on a chair plugged to another electric socket.”
“Dr Neogi had purchased a property and was going to renovate it. Kalu, a supplier of inferior building materials, was insisting on being hired. Dr Neogi had refused, there were hot words and then gun shots, all recorded by the flat’s electronic video survelliance system. But after the shots were fired, the system was switched off. Kalu was found suffocated in the room locked from the inside. His face was distorted and his nails broken.”
Anjana ended the meeting by saying, “It’s time to eat. All this brain work makes me very hungry.”
After lunch, Anjana said, “Don’t you worry Inspector. The case is almost solved. But first ask the Doctor whether Kalu’s lungs were completely collapsed.”
When Inspector Chatterjee checked and confirmed that there was no air at all in the lungs, a very strange case indeed, Anjana said, “This is first recorded case of homicide by robots, the revenge of the robots.”
Pintu objected, “First law of robotics is not to injure a human being.”
Anjana explained “There is an additional law — the Zeroth Law, a robot may harm an individual in service of humanity. “
“But how did the robots kill Kalu?” asked Inspector Chatterjee.
“Robby rushed Kalu in a rugby tackle and threw him on his back. Robacuum clambered over Kalu’s face and vacuumed him. Kalu stuggled and broke his fingernails but he had no chance against a three quarter horse power motor.”
