| The Truth Seeker | |
| Title Orig: | Satyanweshi or Satyanveshi (Bengali: সত্যান্বেষী) |
| Author: | Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Bengali |
| Genre: | Detective, Crime, Mystery |
| Publisher: | P.C. Sorkar and Sons also anthologized by Ananda Publishers |
| Release Date: | 1934 in hardcover 'Byomkesher diary' and in the 'Sharadindu Omnibus' in 1972 |
| Media Type: | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages: | 182 pp |
| Preceded By: | none |
| Followed By: | Pother Kanta |
Satyanweshi (Bengali: সত্যান্বেষী|translit=Śatyānbeṣī|translit-std=iso|lit=The Truth Seeker) also spelled Satyanveshi, is a detective story written by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay featuring the Bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi and his friend, assistant, and narrator Ajit Bandyopadhyay. It is the first Byomkesh adventure written by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.[1]
Ajit Bandyopadhyay lives in a hostel, along with some other people. Ashwini Babu and Ghanshyam Babu are two of the hostel inmates; they live next to Ajit. The hostel is run by a philanthropic homeopathic doctor, Anukul Babu. Ajit has recently become aware of some murders that have happened in their locality. They seemed to have been done by the same person, possibly a serial killer.
One morning a young man named Atul Chandra Mitra comes to Anukul Babu, looking for a vacant room in the hostel. Anukul Babu informs him that there is no vacant room currently available in the hostel. Ajit was sitting nearby and offered to share his room with Atul. Atul is gratified. He even offers to pay the entire rent which Ajit accepts.
One night Ashwini Babu is murdered and Atul gets arrested. But after sometime he is released, without any explanation. That night the murderer of Ashwini Babu tries to kill Atul and Ajit, but he fails. The real killer gets arrested, who is Anukul Babu. He has been doing the business of cocaine behind homeopathy. Ashwini Babu came upon the secret and thus had to be killed.
After that, it is revealed to Ajit that Atul Chandra Mitra is really Byomkesh Bakshi who has assumed an alias to know the truth behind the chain of murders. Byomkesh takes Ajit to his home and they begin living together in the former's house with a servant, Punti Ram.