It was nearly time for the call and Dev had to rush back. He told Raj that he would be back soon. “Those sixteen unsolved cases inspector” the commissioner said in a condescending tone and before Dev could reply with his planned response, the commissioner continued “Those crimes look closely connected, and Shiv had already started probing into the them before he left, I would like to give them to him and you can continue with the ongoing ones”. Dev said, “Sir I would love to be a part of this investigation, I now have a larger team and the current cases wont take a hit in my absence. I give you my word, further since I have control over two areas there won’t be a jurisdiction issue”. The childlike enthusiasm and mature line of thinking and reasoning were a unique blend of traits that very few possessed. The commissioner thought for a while and replied, “I should be able to handle this”.
Dev immediately said, “Sir there is something else quite important that I need you to hear”. Dev could see a wave of discomfort quickly gush through the commissioner’s body. There was a sort of internal conflict in the commissioner’s reaction. He had never before appeared to lack confidence, been unsure of what he was saying or tried to cover something up.
The few uncomfortable moments of silence ended with the commissioner losing his temper and saying in a stern voice, ”I will meet you tomorrow, I need to leave now”. However before Dev could rise from his seat and a thought chain could be set loose in his mind, his phone chimed. The commissioner had messaged “Call me over a secure line”.
Dev immediately called him and he expressed his concern over the suicide case being closed abruptly. The commissioner had said that he was unaware of it. In a very low and nearly secretive tone he continued,” Dev I needed someone trustworthy to uncover the facts, you are the right man for the job. I’m aware that something fishy is going on and there are many insiders who have suppressed the truth till now. Reacting impulsively without much evidence will hardly lead to any action being taken and the vicious circle will become more resistant, powerful and intelligent than they are today and can never be stopped. Son, the aircraft of business and crime is a prudently concealed one. Boarding passes are given only to those who fund the actions that take place on the inside. Even those employed to restock the necessities for the operation are assigned discrete objectives and are kept at bay from the window shades. There are layers of security that you need to cross. We have only a single attempt to find that one weak window and crack it open in a single well planned shot without attracting the attention of the shrewd insiders. The initial breakthrough will rapidly suck out every layer and expose the very body of the aircraft in no time. Takeoff time is tomorrow, the files of those 16 cases will be out of our hands . ”
Dev was initially puzzled by the reply and as he thought deeper , he slowly realized the meaning of each metaphorical reference with respect to the current situation. He had taken a photocopy of all the sixteen case files and went to Raj’s house well armed. Raj had described how Shiv had stepped over the blood stains and all the suspicious happenings of the night. Dev immediately looked for the post mortem report on the police portal and to his shock the status said “undone”. On further tracing the bodies using the help of his friends who were outside the department it was found that the bodies had been shipped to a foreign country. The fund for the transport of the body was provided by a shell company.
The hand prints on the bodies of the victims were identified to be that of a history sheeter. Time was running out and once the man was identified, Dev had to resort to rigorous interrogation. The convict had revealed that he had been hired by the mayor of another city to threaten the family to withdraw a case that they had filed. It was cheating related. After being spanked left and right the man spoke out in full detail, “ That night all the lights in the house were out and I was looking around for the family. I looked everywhere and on being unable to trace them, I called the mayor to inform him. I was on speaker and suddenly there was some bright light from above, before I could look at the source it was switched off and a boy fell on me. He had a phone in his hand and I was sure he videographed me on the phone with the mayor. The boy never told me where the phone was and I pulled the entire bureau down, it was from the top of this bureau that he had fallen down. His father who was hiding behind the bureau, took me down from behind and I slit his throat with a hand knife. Just as I was going to slit the boy’s throat, the mother threw the mobile at me to save her son. However I knew that the boy and the mother had heard me talk over the phone and I had to kill them. I slit their throats as well. To make it look like suicide I hung them on nooses.” “Then how would you explain the blood stains if it were a single clean slit” thundered Dev. “The boy did resist and I had to knife him thrice”. Dev asked “Where is the phone ?”, the thug did not answer for a few seconds but as Dev came menacingly towards him, he realised that he could not save the mayor and it was better to save his own skin. Just as Dev was about to land another thunderous blow the man answered, “Sir the storage card was not in the phone, I suspected the woman to have swallowed it and that’s why the post mortem was avoided earlier.”
The post mortem was done and the SD card was found in a ziplocked cover within the woman’s body. The inspector was awe struck by the mother’s presence of mind. It had given them priceless evidence. The card also had certain loan documents which revealed the name of a local company.
The convict also confessed to have shot the officer that night as he had gotten too close during the chase.
A mayor having a hand in the shooting of his own officer certainly implied large stakes. Dev’s was able to foresee a connection between this and the pressure on the commissioner to transfer the sixteen cases to Raj. All the cases were of a similar type and threw up the names of a few domestic companies. A detailed report was submitted to sanction an inquiry. Soon the CBI along with the support of the foreign nation’s administration were able to procure the transaction history of the shell company. It was also found that the owner was the mayor himself. The dots seemed to connect themselves in the exact manner as anticipated by Dev. The entire lending business scam sprawling at least fifty cases in the home country and a dozen on foreign land was exposed.
The modulus operandi of the business was to promise large loans at sub market interest rates, obtain a certain advance and then go absconding. Agents changed sim cards, used locals to carry out the money collection operations and completely masked their identity. The mayor did the major funding and had a loyal unsuspecting inspector(Shiv) incharge of the area where he carried out the operations . He kept getting the inspector transferred to expand business. The mayor used the names of several small and medium level businesses, to convince customers regarding credibility, reaped profits, shared it with the company and once the complaint was raised, hired thugs to threaten the family to stay hush . He carefully picked only those companies who were in a temporary need for funds, but had a reputation, making a deal to trade in one for the other. The shell company used to convert large sums of unaccounted money earned into white.
The inversion here refers to today’s scenario where the crime and concealment network have hands everywhere to help them, thereby providing a conducive environment for extensive planning and steady growth , whereas law keepers apart from having to dig deeper into the tamper bound, minutely dropped clues have to even worry about who they brainstorm with and are compelled to destroy every level of the network in one go.
