Mousebite

by Ganesh Chaudhari

  He was the son of the in-charge of the US consulate. Visiting India for a week, he had been called to Lonavala by a friend who was on a vacation in India. He repeated that he was not aware of the party’s nature nor had he consumed any narcotic.

  So came the Indian conundrum. Do you protect the law or do you protect a special (probably innocent) person? First I asked the boy to keep mum till I returned. When it comes to special treatment for a person by us cops, Khan tells every man working with him two things. First, we can take it up with him only if we don’t know the person before the case. No friends, no relatives & no recommendations. Second & most importantly, we can take it up only on humanitarian grounds. Nothing else. I felt the boy qualified on both grounds. So I called Khan explaining him about the boy. If he didn’t call his family soon, there was surely going to be a manhunt & if he was clean, we would have ended up with an egg in our face for keeping him in custody after knowing who he was. Some of the politically efficient superiors would have found it convenient to put the blame on Khan & even me. But if we let him go, then what was the point of the planned operation? Khan asked me whether I believed the boy. He has this knack of asking difficult questions. But I said I did.

  Khan was at the station in thirty minutes. He spoke with the boy in private & made a call from his cell phone to the security in-charge at the consulate. The story was confirmed & we had two guys from the consulate at the station in no time. Surprisingly, one of them was an Indian-American. Veeren Reddy. Khan told them curtly that he cannot let the boy out of supervision till the court grants him a bail or his samples turn out to be clean. They were ready for this. They offered to house the boy in one of the consulate’s Indian employee’s home near the station. Khan said that one of his men had to be with the boy round the clock. And obviously it had to be me. They were happy to oblige. Khan had approval from his superiors in minutes & that was that.

  So I stuck it out with the boy. Because the next day, other invisible strings were pulled for getting the blood sample reports from the lab at the quickest & obviously the boy came clean. Anyway, those 24 odd hours were also duty time for Veeren at the same house. So we got to know each other better. Born & brought up in America, it was ironic for him to be an employee of the American government in his country of origin. I have always suspected that he is not a simple consulate employee but more of the cloak and dagger kind with a three lettered agency but it is not substantiated. We have been friends since then. At the end of the episode, the boy thanked me, Khan in person & so did Veeren’s boss. They promised me any help that they could get for me whenever I required. It is time to collect the debt.

  I call the US consulate in Mumbai from my cell phone. A receptionist answers promptly after I choose to talk with someone other than the machine. I tell her that I need to talk to Veeren.

  “And who should I say is calling?” She asks politely.

  “Oh, Inspector Worldfever.” I reply to leave her baffled. World fever is crude translation of my surname Jagtap in English. Obviously, it was the expert translation work of Veeren. She pauses for a while & then puts me on hold. The call is connected quickly though.

  “Pandurang, how are you?” Veeren asks cheerfully.

  “I am fine, Veeren.” I cannot help scratching my hurting nose as I tell him.

  “Long time man. Tell me.” Veeren starts.

  “Yes long time. Listen, I need a favour.” I cut the formalities.

  “Sure. Anything that I can do. Just shoot.” Veeren’s immediate reply sounds encouraging.

  “Not over the phone. Can we meet?” I don’t want to put him in a bind if my request is impossible for him.

  “Yes. For lunch?” He asks.

  “Suits me. Same place?” I suggest.

  “Yes. Same place.” We have a meeting place near the Tardeo station which is clean & well serviced for food.

  “See you then.” I sign off.

  25

  Deja vu

  Ishtiyaq had decided to act in the next 48 hours. On starting from the village, he had not been so sure. The idea was to do a final reconnaissance. Given the increased alertness of the government, he had thought of using three more days to reach the target area without raising alarms & finishing the job quietly. The slow pace would have allowed him to be more careful & would have been easier on his two apprentices. But that depended on the apprentices being focused. He was sure Mushtaq was becoming tentative. He had been overly silent even by his standards since they had left for Mumbai. The eyes were swollen probably due to long periods of crying. He had hardly smiled or eaten during the journey till Pune. Ishtiyaq had also observed that Ijaz was surprised at this just like him. It was as if a warrior was unsure before the battle of his life.

  It always happened when a new recruit had killed for the first time. Almost every new recruit, however well trained was prone to guilt & remorse after taking a human life. It hurt even more if the recruit didn’t know the victim. The guilt would be multiplied after realizing that you killed an innocent person who had never known you, leave alone hurt you just because your master ordered you to. The guilt was a two edged blade. In the seclusion of training camps, it would be easy to counsel the trainee with face to face sessions, psychological & religious propping materials & even diversions like drugs to blunt it off. But when on a mission, it risked derailing of the entire mission. This was no sandbox. A fit of righteousness would risk everything & everyone involved.

  Ishtiyaq had considered killing Mushtaq right away. They were yet to reach Mumbai & had sufficient time for that. But that would put Ijaz’s faith under duress. They were friends since childhood first & cousins later. Ijaz looked solid enough to do that if required but there was an outside chance of him collapsing too. So it was out of question. There was also the question of them striking separately. Losing one would mean more cops to concentrate on the other two. So the best option was to go ahead with the mission quicker. And it was equally important to get rid of Mushtaq immediately after that. He stretched himself hard in the waiting room of the travel service office. The bus to Mumbai was to leave in four hours. He had found a rusty chair at the office in the early morning & had not left it since. He walked up to the bench where Mushtaq & Ijaz were leaning against each other. With their backs to the wall, both were dozing without noticing his presence. He didn’t wake them as he went out for tea.

  ***

  Kumar had been busy since the morning. He had picked up Hormaz early in the morning. He had seen Jagtap and it had hurt. The bastard may be smiling at him later in the day if Hormaz decided to honor his word. It looked like happening as Anees had probably kept his end of the deal. Hormaz had called Kumar in the night with an order to meet up early in the morning. This urgency pointed to Anees’s input as Kumar had not heard anything from the agency sources. Hormaz had kept it short on the phone. Once with Hormaz, he had been asked to take Hormaz to Baaz builders. It was a non-descript office near Jhaveri Bazaar owned by Anees. Seeing Anees & Hormaz arranging meetings all by themselves caused agony to Kumar’s clouded mind. To add to it, Hormaz had promptly asked Kumar to travel back to the NIA office & get all that he could on a possible suspect by the name of Ishtiyaq Malik. From whatever he knew of Hormaz, Kumar knew that Hormaz must have found everything that there was to find about this guy in the night itself. (If Anees had given him the name yesterday.) So asking him to get the same information was a polite way of keeping him out of the meeting between Hormaz & Anees. Obviously, he had been wise not to react to any of this. He had appeared urgent in his responses and rushed back to get the information from agency servers. He was sure Hormaz would log the information requests made by him. As he sat in front of the computer waiting for it to transfer the server documents into a flash drive, it appeared to him that Anees was succeeding in slowly nudging him from being the authority. His phone rang. He decided to answer it after a long moment.

  “Sir, I am calling from the tracking section.” Though the voice was recognized by Kumar immed
iately, he felt it had the excitement tinge that could be a result of tireless work yielding a result.

  “Yes?”

  “We tracked a new Samsung Galaxy Note 2 at the Wheely. It has been at the Wheely for almost 48 hours now.” The voice began in a hurried tone. Kumar didn’t interrupt.

  “There was an email on it for Anees. It looks innocuous enough but it had a link to another website with lot of highly encrypted data. We are decrypting it as we speak but it seems some of the documents have reference to a terrorist attack planned by a man.” The voice ran out of breath. The NIA had a special super computer on its network that could be used for decrypting data & it was usual for it to decrypt information by brute force in a matter of days or hours or minutes. It took time.

  “Have you found the name of this man?” Kumar asked.

  “That is why I called Sir. Though the nature of attack is not clear yet, the name of the man has been mentioned many times in almost every document.” The voice made it sound like a heads up tip.

  “And?” Kumar paused.

  “It is Ishtiyaq Malik.” The voice anwered. Kumar punched the air with delight.

  “Listen to me very carefully. You will get me all that information today itself. If you want super computer decryption access from any facility in the country let me know. And block any external access to that site. ” Kumar ordered.

  “Yes Sir. The site has been taken down.” The voice affirmed. It was part of the NIA protocol to take down a site with information of interest within minutes of confirmation.

  “And one more thing, don’t share this with anyone, anyone till I ask you to.” Kumar finished. The day was suddenly looking up for him. If this was the same Ishtiyaq, then he could still turn things around. If he could get the detailed plan of the attack without Anees’s help, he could still end up with all the credit. Yes, I would see to it, he thought.

  ***

  As I reach the office, I am told that Khan would be coming down after a couple of hours. And that he has asked me to meet him as soon as he does. So I have two hours. Ulhas is not in yet so I decide to check up on Dr.Desai. It would give me details about Pulkit’s autopsy & more importantly, I may get information on Bhavna. So I rush to Dr.Desai’s office. I find him in his cabin studying a sheet of paper. He is wearing his white apron over a blue colored shirt. The spectacles on his nose & the broad neck make him look like an academic. I knock on the door.

  “Yes, Pandurang.” He motions me to come in. I take up a chair against his table.

  “I was just finalizing Pulkit Jha’s autopsy report.” With his bent head, he looks at me over the spectacles. I give him all my attention.

  “He was strangled for sure. Nothing major apart from that.” Dr.Desai keeps the sheet on the table & focuses on me. I get a feeling that this is not a good look. It seems more like what-the-fuck-have-you-done-to-my-daughter look.

  “Did he have any food in his stomach?” I wish to get the sticky case out of the way before getting into the really sticky one.

  “Small amounts. Some rice & daal mostly.” Dr.Desai confirms by looking at the paper again.

  “No non-vegetarian food?” I ask.

  “No. No animal proteins or tissue.” Dr.Desai says. So I would have to track down the waiter.

  “Ok.” I pause. “I would like to discuss something else with you if you have time.”

  “Sure. Go ahead.” Dr.Desai folds his large hands across his chest & rests against the back of his chair. I can’t make out if his expression has changed but I keep my eyes on his as I talk. I tell him about yesterday in detail. I don’t leave out anything that happened at the hotel or near my home. Then I tell him about the phone call that I made to check on Bhavna. He does not react in any way as I tell him that Bhavna sounded disturbed on the phone. The description of the veiled threat from Sadanand also fails to ruffle him. I end by asking if he noticed Bhavna being disturbed.

  “Yes she is. I was going to ask you about it. ” He answers. Then it is his turn to talk. He tells me that Bhavna appeared disturbed after my phone call. She was ok before the call. Thankfully, Dr.Desai does not get into explaining what he thought of her mood change & what might have caused it. As a father to a daughter, I can visualize what his imagination might have fetched him after seeing his kid so distraught. He understands the seriousness of the threat. He tells me that he has a licensed revolver if it ever comes to that. I have no doubt that he would use it effectively when he decides to. He assures me that Bhavna would be safe at home.

  “But what about the rest of the day?” I ask.

  “Well, she is a practicing martial artist. She also has her own defense gear.” He looks confident as he says this. I will do well to remember this. Looks & attitude with skills. But I don’t get it. A practicing martial artist should be hard to ruffle in the face of a physical threat. Why did Bhavna react like she did? Dr.Desai reads my mind.

  “I think I know what you are thinking. You are wondering why she sounded stressed.” I nod.

  Dr.Desai sighs. He explains. Bhavna was in a relationship a few years back. The man was a college mate of hers, Aditya. He was a senior to her at the medical college & graduated 2 years before Bhavna. He worked with a reputed hospital in Andheri & was on his way to start his own clinic in a few years. They spent lot of time together. Though it was not official with the parents, both families approved of the match & thought it was just a matter of time before the couple decided. Also, Bhavna was yet to complete her degree. Bhavna looked happiest during those days. And then one evening changed it.

  Aditya had come to see Bhavna off at the Andheri station. He drove her to the station & accompanied her to the platform. On the platform, there was a group of inebriated men who passed lewd comments at Bhavna & all the other women passing by. Aditya confronted them & had them evicted from the platform with the help of the cops at the station. Obviously, the men shouted threats as they were being taken away. Bhavna tensed up due to that. So Aditya offered to accompany her all the way to her home. Bhavna tried to talk him off, but he insisted. They took the train as the car might have taken longer. He saw her home & left for Andheri station again. But that was the last time anybody saw him. The train that he took to Andheri was targeted by terrorists. It was 7th July 2007. The compartment that Aditya was traveling in was bent like a paper sack due to the blasts.

  Aditya’s body was blown to smithereens & handed to his family in a jar. Bhavna was inconsolable for days. She stopped attending college, meeting friends or even smiling. Dr.Desai was really worried for her & used to spend hours talking to her every day. He was seriously considering psychological treatment for her when after a month of depression; Bhavna took up the routine back. She started attending college again. It was as if she had built a thick shell over her inner self. She would smile less but was dedicated to joining the police service. She was selected as a trainee with the Toxicology & Forensics department of the Mumbai Police soon. Dr.Desai never wanted her to, but could not convince her otherwise. It was better to see her like this than as a broken being.

  “So I think your telling her about the night’s showdown might have given her a sense of déjà vu.” He says.

  “Why do you think so?” I ask involuntarily.

  “Because she has smiled more in the last four days than she did in the past four years.” Dr.Desai sighs again. I don’t know how to react. There is no denying the fact that I like Bhavna. I may not have spent lot of time with her but it has been enjoyable, memorable & touching. I cannot say this about most of my female acquaintances till now. Hell, barring Kshipra, nobody fits that description. I can see Dr.Desai watching me closely. I am not sure if that is a good thing. Looking vulnerable to a man does not always work. My mobile phone rings to the rescue. It is Kshipra.

  “Jaggu we need to meet.” She gets to the point right away. This means that the matter is past urgent.

  “Where?”

  “Churchgate in half an hour.” She replies.

  “See you.”
I confirm. I ask Dr.Desai to excuse me & leave with the post mortem reports.

  ***

  As lunch with Reddy is away, I choose to drive to CST on my Bullet. I make good time to get there in just over forty minutes. Sure enough, Kshipra is standing at the Frankie joint with a cup of tea in her hand. I smile at her, she smiles too but she is trying to stretch her vision beyond me. Her eyes don’t lock on mine. This could mean she is trying to ascertain if I am being tailed. I quicken my pace.

  “You expecting somebody?” I ask her.

  “That is the problem. It could be anybody.” She starts walking towards the railway platforms ahead. I follow.

  “I think you are onto something real nasty Jaggu.” She hardly raises her voice making sure that nobody other than me can hear her.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Remember the website that you wanted details about?” She does not break her pace but watches me nod.

  “Seems that the NIA is interested in it too. The website has been brought down by a DDoS attack since yesterday making it unavailable for anyone.” She continues. This is unbelievable.