Dr. Shweta Noorani is the overarching villainess from "In Cold Blood", case #35 of Criminal Case: The Conspiracy, the 5th season of the crime solving game Criminal Case (release date September 13, 2018).
Introduction[]
Shweta was intially introduced in Criminal Case's third season, Criminal Case: Save the World, in the game's 21st case, "Plagued by Death". Shweta was then the head of the Science Department of Jayamahal University in Bangalore. Shweta was questioned by the player and Jack Archer regarding the death of student Sunil Dhudwar, who was killed by a mamade virus that was behind an epidemic within Bangalore that led to hundreds of fatalities.
While Shweta was shocked to learn about Sunil being killed using the virus, she expressed no shock at the virus being manmade, revealing that she had created the virus herself with Sunil's help. Jack was outraged to learn that Shweta was the creator of the virus, with the scientist defending herself by stating that the virus wasn't meant to be taken out of the university and that she hadn't realized the virus was stolen until after the epidemic began, while also revealing that she was working to create a cure.
Shweta was confronted by the detectives again when it was revealed she had been contacted by O.M. MediLab (a branch of an international terrorist group known only as SOMBRA) to test an antiviral drug they wanted to commercialize, leading Jack to believe she had used the virus to kill Sunil and start the epidemic. In response, Shweta revealed that she created a pure super virus out of O.M. MediLab's drug (as it could breed a dangerous virus), while also professing that she had never tested the virus on humans and that she wouldn't accept O.M. MediLab's bribe. Shweta was ultimately proven innocent of both the epidemic and Sunil's murder, and she later revealed her intent to test discovered blood that was found to be immune to the virus and share her results with the Bureau.
The Conspiracy and Heel Turn[]
Shweta returned in The Conspiracy as a scientist for technology firm DreamLife, with "In Cold Blood" having her approached by the player and Gloria Hayes for questioning in the murder of DreamLife botanist Wendy Stokes. When approached by the detectives, Shweta proclaimed to Gloria (who was angered by Shweta's actions) that what happened in India was an accident and highlighted how her career suffered as a result, while expressing gratitude to DreamLife for hiring her and for their advanced equipment. When asked about Protozane, a drug DreamLife was developing from the Berzelium from a meteor that fell in Grimsborough, Shweta proclaimed that no human experimentation was going on at DreamLife and appeared horrified to learn about Wendy passing away.
As revealed over the course of the case, however, Shweta was not only directly responsible for testing Protozane on unwilling subjects, but was also the mastermind behind Wendy's murder. After learning that Wendy was preparing to leave DreamLife in the wake of the murder of her girlfriend (DreamLife security guard Barb Bellamy), Shweta turned heel and plotted to use the recently perfected Protozane to kill her. After calling Wendy's intern/apprentice Rosie Summers into Lab 88-B under the pretense of being interviewed for a new job, Shweta and her fellow scientists gave her iced tea laced with the Protozane. With the drug suppressing Rosie's emotions and leaving her both docile and suggestible, Shweta called Wendy into the room and ordered Rosie to shoot her with a nitrogen gun, with Rosie following the callous conspirator's orders and freezing her own mentor to death.
After Rosie was revealed as Wendy's unwilling killer who had been drugged before committing the crime, a memory card containing brain scans of the Protozane test subjects was uncovered, which revealed that dozens of the people experimented on died as a result of the drug's effects. The memory card also revealed that Shweta was in charge of the Protozane trials, leading the player and Gloria to arrest the villainess for the illegal trials and also Wendy's murder. Just before her arrest, Shweta boldly confessed to her villainous actions, while also boasting that a shipment of Protozane was ready to leave the DreamLife dome and also that there was no way to create an antidote for the drug.
"Breaking News"[]
Later on, Shweta re-appeared in case #54, "Breaking News" (release date January 24, 2019), having begun teaching a science class to her fellow inmates in prison. One of her student was Louis Leroux, a member of Rozetta's villainous group of supremacist conspirators known as Ad Astra, who was found murdered in his cell at the case's start. When questioned by the player and Gloria, Shweta claimed she had turned over a new leaf and that she hadn't known Louis very well. Later on, though, the player and Gloria confronted Shweta on an angry message Shweta left for Louis on a virus model, which revealed her true first encounter with Louis: he had been one of the first reporters to cover the virus outbreak she inadvertently caused in India, with Shweta proclaiming that Louis (in her mind) ruined her life and career. But despite this, Shweta continued to argue she was making a fresh start and hadn't killed Louis.
However, the evidence would later prove that Shweta did in fact killed Louis, having filled the light bulb in his jail cell with nitroglycerin to act as a makeshift explosive to kill him. When cornered by the detectives with the evidence against her, and accused by Gloria of killing Louis on Ad Astra's orders, Shweta boldly confessed and revealed her true motivation: she had been enlisted by Ad Astra's true head to kill Louis, boasting that they were far more powerful than Ad Astra and were planning to kill the group off for outliving their usefulness (with the leader ordering Louis' death due to him attempting to warn Ad Astra about the threat). After refusing to name the leader, Shweta was put on trial again, with Judge Judith Powell sentencing her to serve thirty additional years on top of the sentence she was already serving for her actions regarding DreamLife, to which the sinister villainess proclaimed that she had served her purpose and would accept the additional prison time.
Quotes[]
- "Ah, I should have remembered how quick-witted you are, [player's rank and name]. But yes, after numerous failed attempts, our latest experiment on that intern has proven that we have finally perfected Protozane! (Gloria: "Dr. Noorani, your failed experiments killed a bunch of people! And for what? To create a drug that turns humans into emotionally-dead murderers?!") We only killed Dr. Stokes because she wanted to leave the dome! But we've got much bigger plans for Protozane than using it to kill people! Anyway, none of that matters now. A shipment of Protozane is as good as ready to leave the dome! Soon, the WHOLE of Grimsborough will be putty in our hands! And the best thing is, there's no antidote! You cannot counter the effects of the drug! It's perfect!" (Dr. Shweta Noorani's deranged confession to masterminding the Protozane trials and also the murder of Wendy Stokes, as well as revealing that the drug was about to be shipped out of the DreamLife dome to Grimsborough)
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