The Colaba Conspiracy

by Surender Mohan Pathak

  ‘Sir, we just have the locker opened. We have no role in having it closed. The locker is closed by the customer, and if it is not closed properly, then …’

  ‘Then a new entrant can immediately sense which of the five hundred lockers is not closed properly? Or he tries each one of the five hundred lockers to see which of them was not closed properly? Or, he could see through the steel doors of the lockers, like an x-ray?’

  Cherat was speechless.

  ‘Bloody idiot, is there nothing in your head, or is it full of bullshit?’

  Cherat’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

  ‘You just said “either the locker was not closed properly”. What is the other possibility you were trying to point out?’

  ‘Or,’ he said, ‘that sardar managed to bust the locker.’

  ‘Who was he?’

  ‘I don’t know, sir, he came with the other man who was a locker holder.’

  ‘When the other man was the locker holder, why did he have another fellow with him?’

  ‘Sir, there is no such rule in our vault which says a locker holder can’t bring a relative or a friend or a companion with him.’

  ‘Where were you when one of them—or both—were busy busting the locker?’

  ‘Sir, I can’t stay there if the customer requests for privacy.’

  ‘You did not stay there, did not watch the monitor, and did not correct the fault in the camera in time. It seems you people bloody helped the fellow who busted the vault.’

  ‘No, sir! Never, sir!’ the manager pleaded immediately, ‘The vault has been there since so many years. We could not have continued with our business for even a few months had the staff or the officers had such an attitude. The staff is recruited after a very thorough screening, sir. There is no possibility of such a double-cross with the management there.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘So, sir, whatever happened was a coincidence, was an accident.’

  ‘Nobody ambushed the vault?’

  ‘In the first place, it was not so, if it was ambushed, then I must say luck favoured someone in the rarest of rare ways.’

  ‘My question still stands—how will your vault compensate me?’

  ‘Sir, we have no option other than going to the police because …’

  ‘I don’t need that suggestion. It seems I have to do something on my own. Now both of you listen carefully, and convey this to your staff also. Whosoever did this has committed the unpardonable crime of taking my stuff, and I will find him in any case. But if I find out one of your staff members was involved in this, that person would regret the day he was born. His throat will laugh. Followed?’

  The manager only nodded earnestly, Cherat shivered from tip to toe. And he appeared to be half-dead when the Big Boss called him specifically.

  ‘Look here, I’m going to tell you something.’

  ‘Yes, sir!’ Cherat spoke with great difficulty.

  ‘Only you have seen those two fellows who have done this. We will need you to identify them. So don’t get lost in the coming days. What did I say? You’ve followed or should I make you follow some other way?

  ‘I … I’ve followed, sir.’

  ‘Do you know how the throat laughs?’

  A terrified Cherat shook his head.

  ‘Do you want to know?’

  He shook his head faster than before.

  ‘Clever fellow! Now understand this. Keep in sight. Turn up here with lightning speed if I ever call you. Report here pronto without wasting time. Right?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘You can get lost,’ Big Boss said to the manager, ‘he is going to stay here for a while.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ the manager said with a sigh of relief. He immediately left—without giving the clerk a single look of assurance.

  Big Boss looked behind Cherat and signalled to the tall tapori.

  He pushed Jeet Singh to the front.

  Walking with heavy steps, Jeet Singh reached the two people standing before Big Boss and stood there, waiting.

  ‘Look at this new fellow,’ Big Boss said to Cherat, ‘who just came and stood by your side!’

  Cherat looked at him with effort.

  ‘Do you know him?’

  ‘No, sir,’ Cherat said.

  ‘Recognize him?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘Never seen him before?’

  ‘Never, sir.’

  ‘Go out. But stay there for a while. Don’t go away.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  Cherat left the hall.

  Mangesh Gable kept standing where he was.

  ‘Jeet Singh!’ Big Boss asked, ‘Your name is Jeet Singh?’

  ‘Yes, sahib.’

  ‘Jeet Singh, the vault-buster?’

  ‘No, sahib,’ Jeet Singh said as if pleading. ‘Never, sahib. I am a simple locksmith. There at Crawford Market …’

  ‘I know, I know. You sure are what you appear to be. But you are also what you don’t appear to be. Vault-buster! Safecracker! Top expert! No?’

  ‘Sahib, somebody seems to have given you the wrong information. Somebody appears to have done this due to a grudge against me. I am not that fellow.’

  ‘So, there are two fellows with the same name then! Both of them are called Jeet Singh, both of them are locksmiths, both of them have a spot in Crawford Market, no?’

  ‘Sahib, only I have been there for a long time …’

  ‘Then you are that famous vault-buster Jeet Singh.’

  ‘Sahib, I am a simple locksmith, how can I …’

  ‘Why have you come here?’

  ‘Sahib!’

  ‘Why have Ehsaan and Om Raje brought you here?’

  So the taller one was Ehsaan and the stocky fellow was Om Raje.

  ‘They wanted me to open an automatic door lock.’

  ‘So this is your line of business? You do it for a fee?’

  ‘Yes, sahib.’

  ‘Big fee for a big task! Would you say no to somebody who has a problem with some vault?’

  ‘Sahib, in that situation the locksmith comes from the company that manufactured and supplied the vault, the engineer comes.’

  ‘What if somebody can’t wait and wants to troubleshoot the problem immediately? Will somebody afford to wait that long if the vault is in Mumbai and the factory is in Nagpur, Ahmedabad or Hyderabad?’

  ‘No, sahib.’

  ‘In that case, he will call the master locksmith, Jeet Singh taala-chabi. Did anybody ever call you in such a situation?’

  Warning signs started blinking in Jeet Singh’s head. The big boss certainly had some information, in the light of which he was trying to ascertain whether Jeet Singh was replying truthfully

  or not.

  ‘Yes, sahib,’ he said hesitantly, ‘I got such a call once.’

  ‘Carry on.’

  ‘It happened when I was in Panaji.’

  ‘How come you were there?’

  ‘Sahib, business had taken a dip here. A friend of mine said I must try there. I am all alone in the world, so I closed the shop here and went to Panaji. But the situation there was no different. I wasted three months there only to come back to Mumbai.’

  ‘And you happened to open a vault there?’

  ‘Yes, sahib, two guys came and took me to Double Bull Casino, like these two fellows who brought me here.’

  ‘They took you to the casino to open its vault?’

  ‘Yes, sahib. They said it was urgent, and offered any fee that I fancied. The owner of the casino, Marcello himself made that offer because his ten-year-old daughter Sofia had entered the open vault and closed it in her playfulness. Since the keys were in her hands they too were locked inside. The lock of the vault was automatic. It closed of its own but needed three different keys to open. Sahib, I opened that vault to save the child. Sahib, this is the only act of opening a vault that I did in my entire life. I did it for that kid, otherwise she would have died.’

  The expression on Big
Boss’ face eased a bit.

  Jeet Singh sighed in relief. Big Boss was certainly aware of that incident in Panaji and he was testing Jeet Singh by asking about it. It was a wise decision on the part of Jeet Singh to tell the truth. Otherwise he might have had to face horrible consequences.

  ‘The same vault was opened once more,’ Big Boss said, ‘this time for the purpose of robbing it, and the attempt was successful. You opened the vault twice—first for Marcello, and then for the robbers?’

  ‘No, sahib. The very next day, I left Panaji for good and returned to Mumbai.’

  ‘You said Marcello offered you a huge fee, how much did he give you?’

  The bastard was still testing him.

  ‘Ten thousand.’

  ‘This was the amount settled?’

  ‘Sahib, when I was offered a fee that I fancied, then where was the need for settlement?’

  ‘You asked for ten thousand?

  ‘I got ten thousand.’

  ‘You wanted more?’

  ‘Yes, sahib, but I was not given a chance to ask properly. After finishing the job, he asked me what I wanted and when I said ten, he cut me short, suffixed “thousand” to “ten”, and ordered his manager Franco to hand me ten thousand rupees.’

  ‘What were you going to ask?’

  ‘Ten lakh.’

  ‘Hmm,’ Big Boss stopped for a while before speaking again, ‘Marcello is not the owner, but a partner in the Double Bull Casino. My money is also invested in that casino, meaning I am also a partner in that, but a silent partner.’

  Jeet Singh kept quiet.

  ‘Have you ever worked in films?’

  ‘No,’ Jeet Singh was surprised by the question, ‘no, sahib.’

  ‘Any small role, like the ones done by extras? Or the junior artists as they call them?’

  ‘No, sahib.’

  ‘You’ll make an attempt at it now. We are going to give you a screen test.’

  ‘Sahib!’

  ‘We want to see how you’d have looked had you been a Sikh.’

  Jeet Singh’s heart took a dive.

  So this was the reason why Cherat had been asked to ‘stay for a while’.

  Relief seemed to be slipping away. He was still hanging from the cliff.

  ‘Gable,’ Big Boss said, ‘call your fellow.’

  ‘Yes, boss.’

  Gable did as ordered. He called an old man, who, they were told, worked as a make-up artist in the film industry. He took Jeet Singh to the other end of the hall, made him sit on a chair and sat on another in front of him.

  He spent the next fifteen minutes using his skills on Jeet Singh. Big Boss spent the time smoking a cheroot. When the make-up artist was done, Jeet Singh picked a mirror from his bag and looked at the face reflected in the mirror.

  The make-up artist had transformed him into a Sikh using his approximation but Jeet Singh’s heart was in his mouth, as the result was so up to the mark.

  Jeet Singh was paraded before Big Boss in his new disguise.

  Then Murli Cherat was called in.

  ‘Look at him,’ Big Boss said sternly. ‘Is he the sardar who was at the vault with that customer last night? And don’t answer in a hurry, take your time, have a good look, have a prolonged look and then answer.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  Cherat looked at Jeet Singh. His eyes kept staring at him for some time.

  Jeet Singh could not muster the courage to look at him during that time.

  In the end, Cherat looked away and turned back to Big Boss.

  ‘No, sir,’ he said.

  Jeet Singh gave a sigh of relief.

  ‘He is not that Sikh fellow?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘Go out.’

  Cherat followed the instructions.

  Then the make-up artist removed his make-up and he, too, left.

  ‘Now, look at me,’ Big Boss said to Jeet Singh. His tone was not as stern as before.

  ‘Yes, sahib.’

  ‘Only a top lock expert could open that vault locker in record time, and everybody tells me that there’s only one such man in all of Mumbai and that’s you. But you say you’re not the one, that Cherat guy says you’re not the one, and I have to take the word of two of you. But … are you listening?’

  ‘Yes, sahib.’

  ‘Every top expert in a line of business knows about the other top experts. So, you must know who the other experts are in your line. Maybe some person is not as skilled as you are but he must be an expert nonetheless because somebody did bust the vault and it requires excellence in lockbusting skills. Now tell me, who could that be?’

  ‘I don’t know, sahib.’

  ‘Try to find out if you don’t know yet. It would be easier for you to find this out, no?’

  ‘Yes, sahib.’

  ‘You will be rewarded if that bastard is caught with your information.’

  ‘I will try my best, sahib.’

  ‘Good! Intimate Gable if your effort reaches any meaningful conclusion. Gable!’

  ‘Yes, boss!’ Gable said in a dutiful voice.

  ‘Take his number and give him yours.’

  The numbers were exchanged.

  ‘May I leave now, sahib?’ Jeet Singh asked hopefully.

  ‘Not yet,’ Big Boss said casually, ‘you need to be given a lesson first.’

  ‘Lesson!’ Jeet Singh was shaken.

  ‘Yes, a lesson that cleverness is dangerous for health.’

  ‘Sahib, I don’t understand.’

  ‘Don’t worry about that. Om Raje will make you understand.’

  Immediately Om Raje appeared before him, and gave him an amused look.

  Jeet Singh looked at him nervously.

  Suddenly his right hand moved, and Jeet Singh felt as if a steam roller had hit him in the stomach. He doubled up in pain. Tears welled up in his eyes. Om Raje’s kneed him in the groin. He groaned and bellowed with pain. Om Raje’s fists hit him like a thunderbolt on the back. His head started spinning and his vision blurred.

  A heavy blow hit him again in the stomach.

  He buckled and fell to the floor in a heap.

  Before losing consciousness, he could see Cherat standing by the door, looking at him with terrified eyes.

  He was alone in the hall when he came back to his senses. All the others, including Big Boss, had left the room.

  Whining, coughing and cursing, he tried to stand up. For some time he just stood there, shaking like a tree in a storm. Slowly, he regained his strength. He moved ahead after making sure his shaking legs could carry the weight of his body. He crossed the door and stepped into the outer room.

  Ehsaan and Om Raje were sipping tea there, sitting in front of each other across a table.

  ‘Oh, come, brother, come here,’ Ehsaan said after looking at him.

  Jeet Singh reached the table.

  ‘Sit.’

  He made no effort to sit.

  ‘Why did you beat me?’ he asked.

  ‘Don’t you know?’ Om Raje replied, ‘Big Boss had ordered me to do so.’

  ‘When did he give such an order?’

  ‘When he said you needed to be given a lesson. Lesson means warning in our vocabulary. What did he say will happen to you if you ever try to pass him the wrong information, or try to trick him?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Your throat will be laughing.’

  ‘This is injustice, cruelty to the weak.’

  ‘You should have told him this.’

  Jeet Singh swallowed with unease.

  ‘Ha ha! The very thought half killed you!’

  Jeet Singh didn’t speak.

  ‘Now, why are you standing here?’ Ehsaan said. ‘Why don’t you get lost?’

  ‘I will. Give me my fee.’

  ‘What fee?’

  ‘Five hundred rupees! You said you will give more if it takes more than the usual time. Give it to me now and drop me at Crawford Market.’

  ‘Fuck you, scum! Have you forgotten
where you are standing?’

  ‘No, I have not. I am standing at a place where not only the weak are oppressed, they are crushed, cheated, swindled. You small-time goons are not just muscle for Big Boss, you are frauds as well.’

  ‘Shut up, bastard.’

  ‘I will tell Big Boss that the payment due to me has been swallowed by you.’

  ‘Do you want to die now, idiot?’

  ‘No, I don’t, but if you kill me now then it will hamper the big boss’ task—the one he entrusted me with in your presence. Tell me whose bottom will be belted then!’

  A startled Ehsaan kept looking at Jeet Singh, unable to retort.

  ‘Why the hell are you letting him bark?’ Om Raje said. ‘Give him the money and ask him to get lost.’

  Ehsaan nodded with some effort, then pulled out a thousand-rupee bill from his pocket and threw it on the table.

  Jeet Singh took it, nodded, then looked at Om Raje as if silently complaining.

  ‘Nothing personal, man,’ Om Raje said sincerely, ‘I did what I was ordered to do.’

  ‘What if you were ordered to finish me?’

  ‘Then I would have finished you … then and there … without any hesitation. You are lucky the order was just for a little beating, nothing more, no?’

  ‘You are right.’

  ‘Then you have no complaint against me.’

  ‘I have no complaint … I will go now.’

  He was on his way to Crawford Market in a taxi when Gailo called him.

  ‘Where are you?’ he asked.

  Jeet Singh told him.

  ‘Where are you exactly as of now?’

  ‘I am about to reach Johar Chowk.’

  ‘Get out there. By chance I am close by, at Grant Road. I am coming there.’

  Five minutes later, Jeet Singh was sitting with Gailo in his taxi.

  Gailo pulled it off the main road, stopped it in a bylane and switched off the ignition.

  ‘See this paper,’ he said, folding a newspaper at a specific story, and giving it to Jeet Singh, ‘this is Daily, comes out at midday unlike the morning papers. That is why the special news on its front page is not in any other paper.’

  ‘And what special news is that?’

  ‘See it for yourself. There are two photographs of the body with the news—one a close-up and the other of the full body. The close-up clearly shows his throat has been slit from ear to ear. The news says the body was recovered by police early morning, from Thane creek.’