The Colaba Conspiracy

by Surender Mohan Pathak

  ‘By God, you are right!’

  ‘So, those two identifiable characteristics of that fellow were brought to your notice as a part of the plan, so that had you gone and tried to find him to avenge your loss, you would have discovered his second speciality—that of being a middleman. The information regarding the exchange of goods and money through the briefcases in that vault was being already fed to you in calculated instalments at the bewra adda. You thought you accidently heard those things but actually they were deliberately poured into your ears. Otherwise, ask yourself, isn’t it too much of a coincidence that two people would be talking about robbing the system, sitting just behind your back whenever you went to that bar?’

  ‘You are absolutely correct, Jeete.’

  ‘It is confirmed now that they knew all the details about that vault. It is also confirmed that those special lockers were their target but they could not realize their plan because they had no vault-buster and I had said no when they approached me for the purpose. Every time they asked, I vehemently declined their offer. Perhaps they were not aware of any other lockbuster as skilful as me. Maybe some other lockbuster could open the lockers but he might have taken half an hour, three-quarters of an hour or a full hour which would not have been as per their need.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘They knew only one person could have done it in time and to their entire satisfaction, and that person was Badrinath the lock-breaker. That’s why they used you as bait to reach me. They worked out a plan and as a part of it they slipped you information about the vault. Then they cultivated you, enraged you to the extent that you vowed to get your revenge from Mangesh Gable by hitting his system at the vault and condemn it forever so that the special role of Mangesh Gable as a middleman was doomed. You reached out to me and after my initial indecisiveness I agreed to work with you and opened the locker successfully. So my services, which they were unable to get for a fee, became available to them for free. And just now you saw how we were conned. So they got the money in the end despite not hitting the vault themselves. Gailo, for your revenge, I didn’t do your job, I did their job. It never occurred to you that whatever you were doing, was not of your own sweet will but as willed and planned by somebody else. Now, tell me, what do you say about it?’

  ‘What can I say now, other than that I am an idiot of the topmost order, and the most likely candidate for the biggest idiot award, if there is any such thing.’

  Jeet Singh laughed.

  ‘But don’t worry, I have understood everything now. I will set things right again … Jeete, he’s coming.’

  Jeet Singh looked at the entrance to the vault building where Cherat was talking to a young man of his own age wearing a similar uniform. He must have been Cherat’s replacement for the next shift.

  ‘He lives in Dharavi,’ Gailo said, ‘in Mukund Nagar, and commutes on a motorcycle. I know the route he takes home. Let’s get out of here, we’ll catch hold of him further ahead.’

  Jeet Singh nodded silently.

  Gailo started the taxi and drove it to the end of the road where there was a detour. He switched off the lights, kept the engine running, and looked at the rear-view mirror.

  Jeet Singh was sitting in the passenger seat. He also adjusted the inside rear-view mirror in a way that he too could keep an eye on everything happening on the road behind.

  Two minutes went by in silence.

  Then the headlights of a motorcycle reflected off the mirrors.

  Immediately Gailo put the taxi in gear, pressed the clutch pedal, and waited for the appropriate moment. As the motorcycle got closer, he released the clutch, pressed the accelerator and swerved the taxi right.

  The screeching of the motorcycle’s brakes echoed in the air. Despite Cherat’s best efforts, the motorcycle hit the taxi, slipped, and both the vehicle and the rider fell on the road.

  ‘Bloody idiot!’ Cherat shouted. ‘Are you driving a taxi or performing for a circus on the road?’

  Both of them came out of the taxi. Gailo reached Cherat.

  ‘Stand up,’ he said in a menacing tone.

  The colour drained out of Cherat’s face the minute he saw Gailo. He looked apprehensively at Jeet Singh.

  ‘Didn’t you hear, you scumbag?’ Gailo hissed. ‘Stand up!’

  Cherat struggled to his feet.

  ‘Come closer.’

  He took a step back instead.

  ‘ok, bloody I will come to you.’

  ‘No! No!’ Cherat said in a desperate tone, ‘Don’t you come close to me. Don’t you touch me …’

  ‘What did you say, you bloody dishonest rascal? I will break every bone in your body.’

  ‘You … you will be sorry …’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘You will be sorry.’

  ‘You dare threaten me, bloody idiot! Do you know who this man standing beside me is?’

  ‘Who … who is he?’

  ‘He’s a shooter. For a dreaded underworld gang. But a friend of mine.’

  ‘Where has the sardar gone?’

  ‘Is this a bloody quiz show? If I put a bullet in your head, you will be running your bloody quiz show in the other world. You bloody cheated on us. Called someone else once we had left the place. Now tell me, who had asked you to squeal on us? Whom did you call? Speak or else …’

  Gailo stepped forward grinding his teeth audibly.

  ‘Stop!’ Cherat shouted in a terrified voice, ‘Don’t come near me or you’ll be sorry. I warn you again, you’ll be sorry.’

  ‘Bloody cockroach, will we be sorry or will you be sorry?’

  ‘You will be sorry. I know what you and your companion, that sardar, did in the vault.’

  Gailo stopped immediately, and gave Cherat a hard look.

  ‘I know everything,’ Cherat shouted as before, ‘I swear I know everything.’

  Gailo looked at Jeet Singh.

  ‘He is making it up,’ Jeet Singh said, ‘it’s a bluff.’

  ‘No bluff,’ Cherat said, ‘it’s God’s truth, I know everything. You opened the locker of some other party. That sardar forcibly opened locker 243.’

  Jeet Singh and Gailo both looked at him in surprise, their mouths wide open.

  ‘You will end up in jail if the police come to know about it and in your graves if the underworld boss comes to know.’

  ‘What underworld boss?’ Jeet Singh asked

  ‘I don’t know, but I am sure a gang maintains those lockers 243 and 244 and busting them is nothing but signing your own death warrant.’

  ‘Whom did you call behind our back? And why?’

  ‘But first tell us,’ Gailo asked in an irritated voice, ‘how you knew what you just said. How could you know about it when you were not there? Talk or I’ll break your neck.’

  He paced threateningly towards Cherat again.

  ‘I’ll talk!’ Cherat shouted like a madman, ‘I’ll talk.’

  ‘I’ll listen.’

  ‘The camera was on.’

  ‘What camera?’

  ‘That closed-circuit tv camera installed near the vault ceiling.’

  ‘That camera! But you said it was off! You said had it been working, it would have been rotating from side to side!’

  ‘Its rotation could be switched off. It could be held stationary in any position.’

  ‘But it was you who bloody assured us that it was off. You even asked us to come and see the monitor to confirm it was off?’

  Cherat remained silent. He dragged his tongue across his dried lips.

  ‘You bloody son-of-a-bitch, you cheated us. You didn’t do the job for which you charged twenty thousand rupees. You assured us that the camera was off but you kept it on. Bloody parked your ass before the monitor and watched everything.’

  ‘If the camera was on,’ Jeet Singh said, shaking his head helplessly, ‘then whatever you saw on the monitor must have been recorded too?’

  Cherat remained quiet, avoiding eye contact with either of them.
r />   ‘Why don’t you bloody say something?’ Gailo hissed.

  ‘There is nothing in the surveillance system of the vault,’ Cherat finally said in a low voice, ‘I have erased the recording of those ten minutes from the system.’

  ‘You bastard, then what are you threatening us with,’ Gailo flared up again, ‘when you have erased the recording from the system?’

  ‘I have the recording of those ten minutes in a cd.’

  ‘What? You lousy scoundrel! You did not just watch everything, you even made a cd out of it?’

  ‘I had to.’

  ‘What do you mean you had to?’

  ‘I had never done anything of the sort I did for you in return for money. I am a family man, I always live under financial pressure. That is why when you made an offer for extra income, I could not resist the temptation. But I was apprehensive all the time that my secret could be leaked. When you asked me to switch off the camera in the vault for a period of exclusive, uninterrupted ten minutes, I was sure you wanted to do something dangerous and illegal in those ten minutes. And when the second party approached me and sought the information about the same ten minutes, even accepted my demand for money without bargaining the way you did, I became certain that what I sensed was absolutely correct. Since those lockers belonged to some underworld bosses, I was sure a lot of trouble was on its way once the lockers were disturbed. A very extensive enquiry was most certain to follow and then even I could have come in the line of fire. I made that cd to counter any such pressure. Now, when you are trying to put pressure on me, that cd will save me.’

  ‘How? How will that cd save you?’

  ‘It is in safe hands …’

  ‘You already passed it into safe hands?’

  ‘Yes, with instructions that if anything happens to me then one copy be sent to the police and whenever found necessary, the second be given to the underworld boss, who owns those two lockers and runs that set-up.’

  ‘You even know of the set-up that functioned through those lockers?’

  ‘Yes, I do. I work in the vault. I was bound to know of it sooner or later if I kept my eyes and ears open.’

  ‘You were not bound to know. You were bloody determined to know. You bloody keep a hawk’s eye on the info that can come handy to you. Bloody bastard, you keep a specific watch on such things.’

  Cherat swallowed uncomfortably.

  ‘Where is the cd?’

  He looked the other way.

  A long screwdriver appeared in Gailo’s hand.

  ‘Tell me now where’s the cd,’ he said in a terrifying tone, ‘otherwise I will puncture this big, fat tummy of yours.’

  He sealed his lips.

  ‘Search him,’ Jeet Singh said suddenly.

  Gailo frisked him thoroughly. He included in his search the bike and a bag hanging from it.

  Nothing meaningful was recovered.

  Not even the envelope with eighteen and a half thousand rupees in it.

  ‘Where is the envelope with the money,’ Gailo asked, holding him by his collar and shaking him violently.

  ‘That too has gone with the cd,’ Cherat said slowly.

  ‘And where are both these things?’

  ‘I won’t tell, you can do what you want to do.’

  ‘Torture can break anybody,’ Jeet Singh said.

  ‘I know that.’

  ‘You are very brave, you are a lion, you are not afraid of torture?’

  ‘I’m a coward, I’m a mouse, that’s why I made some arrangements.’

  ‘What arrangements?’

  ‘I called my wife and said I will be reaching home in thirty minutes, and will call if I happen to get late. If I don’t reach in time or don’t call despite getting late, my wife will make a call to that place where the cd is.’

  ‘And what will happen after that?’

  ‘All hell will break loose.’

  Jeet Singh became silent.

  ‘What does that mean?’ Gailo asked in a worried tone.

  Jeet Singh shrugged helplessly.

  ‘Bloody cheat!’ Gailo said to Cherat, ‘Bloody smartass cheat, at least tell us who’s the second party you sounded off about us?’

  He did not reply.

  ‘This is a small thing,’ Jeet Singh said. ‘It will in no way harm you but it may benefit you.’

  ‘What benefit?’

  ‘We will forget your treachery this minute, will forget the way you cheated us, will never bring up again that you worked against us. We will never come after you for doing that.’

  ‘Do I have your word for it? Your solemn promise?’

  ‘Yes, you do.’

  ‘What if you don’t stand by your promise?’

  ‘You have the cd in that case. The weapon that you so successfully used against us, you could use again. Who will stop you then?’

  He thought it over.

  ‘Make a decision quickly,’ Gailo said in a restless voice, ‘we don’t have all night to waste here.’

  ‘ok.’

  ‘Then tell us, whom did you inform once we finished the job and left the vault?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I honestly don’t know.’

  ‘Then how did you inform him?’

  ‘I was given a phone number.’

  ‘On which you made a call once we had left the bank?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What’s the number?’

  He hesitated.

  ‘If you are not ready to even tell us that, then the deal my friend just made is off.’

  He rattled off a ten-digit number.

  Jeet Singh recorded the number in his mobile phone.

  ‘How much did you collect from him?’ Gailo asked.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Arre, money,’ Gailo said, ‘what else?’

  ‘Fifty.’

  ‘What? Just for making a call about us?’

  ‘I had to also confirm whether you had opened one of the adjoining lockers or not.’

  ‘Oh!’

  ‘That’s why it was necessary to keep the surveillance camera on. Otherwise I could not have known what you were doing in the vault and whether you were successful in doing it or not. You people believed me easily when I said the camera was off, but think how difficult a task it would have been had I needed to convince you if you did not agree that easily?’

  ‘That’s why the fee was fifty thou?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Got the money?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘At least then you would have seen that fellow’s face when he came to deliver the money?’

  ‘No, he never came. The money was delivered via courier. And the deal was made over the phone.’

  ‘How many times did he call?’

  ‘Three, four times.’

  ‘He never mentioned his name?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You must have asked?’

  ‘I asked, he laughed at it.’

  ‘Hmm.’

  Gailo looked at Jeet Singh.

  ‘Any other thing,’ Jeet Singh said casually, ‘that may not disturb your constitution but could be useful for us?’

  Cherat shook his head.

  ‘Tell us now, if there is any angle, any trick in the mobile number you gave us.’

  ‘There is no such thing. I called this very number whenever I had to say anything, and whenever he called, he also called from the same number.’

  ‘You said you have a wife, what about children?’

  ‘I don’t have any children as of now.’

  ‘Is your wife expecting?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then listen carefully. Keep the deal we just had in mind, never forget it. The task for which you took money from us and the second party is over now. Nobody from anywhere is ever going to mention it again. The only thing that will happen is that the system that ran with those two lockers will stop functioning. And so, you and your vault will not be dragged into any event of
an underworld boss, a gangster or an enforcer going after somebody or doing something to somebody. In such a scenario, there is no role of the cd you have. You can keep it as a souvenir of your smart-ass skills, but think a hundred times before trying to use if for any ulterior motive. Any such attempt by you will create a problem for us and hence it will definitely come to our knowledge. And if that situation arrives, I will myself come to Dharavi and then Mukund Nagar. Then we will see how you push your weight around, how you blackmail us with the cd!’

  ‘What … what will you do?’

  ‘You will see. I can do it right now if you say the deal is off.’

  ‘No! No!’

  ‘It would be good for you if I do it now, because in that case at least your wife would be spared. You understand what I said?’

  Cherat shivered visibly.

  ‘Think about what I said. Take your bike and leave now. You can think about it on your ride, and can also consult your wife after you get home. Maybe she’ll give you some good advice; in fact I am sure she will give you good advice. Who wants to be a widow after all, that too in Mumbai, so far from Kerala?’

  Cherat shivered again.

  ‘Go now.’

  With a great effort, he lifted the motorcycle and kickstarted it. Then he rode off in a rush.

  ‘You gave a bloody top-class lecture, Jeete,’ Gailo said. ‘He was shaken. I could see him shaking in terror.’

  Jeet Singh didn’t reply.

  ‘Why did you not give him the same treatment when he was trying to threaten us?’

  ‘He was under the impression then that the cd was his trump card. What I just said would not have terrified him then. In fact, it could have had an adverse effect. Considerably empowered by the cd, he could have reacted badly.’

  ‘I think this cd thing is a complete bluff.’

  ‘No. He abused our trust to his advantage in the vault. He succeeded in making us believe the camera was off, while it was on because without that, he could not have known what was going on in the vault. He knew we had succeeded in opening the other locker and had taken out the suitcase. There was no point in calling the other party without being sure of these things. Since it is the news of our success that was worth fifty thousand rupees, he had definitely kept the camera on and then everything must have been recorded in the system. If he was telling the truth while saying that he had erased the recording of those ten minutes, then this too must be true that he had made a cd of those ten minutes for himself.’