Chapter 10
At Friend’s nest, full quorum was present around the Dinner table and a war council was on. The topic of the evening was, of course, Sathish. Vittal and Raju took up observer status maintaining a decent silence while George was actively involved in the discussions. Kaddu was explaining and Dickey put on an unpleasant scowl on his face and the Colonel , the head of the household, was conducting the discussion. He was surprised to learn that Kaddu and Dickey were already aware of Sathish , more so about Nalini .He put one on one and decided that Sathish was out to take a subtle revenge On Shanta and Dickey for what happened to Prakash Agarwal years back.
He warned Dickey, ”Dickey. It is a sticky situation. Your usual style of hit and run can not work here. How do you plan to take sathish out?”
Dickey said, ‘presently, getting Shanta’s carpet back is what I am working on. I have found out that Nalini got into our school management with a motive. Her relationship with Sathish is also now in the open. On top of all that now we know that Sathish is aspiring for a share in our school. So the picture is clearly one of outright confrontation. Nalini has already hinted at what all Sathish is capable of doing. We will watch what he does. We may have to take a few hits initially because we have to make him commit mistakes first. Then only we can justify what ever action we have to take.”
Col’ ‘Dickey, you better brief your friend Mouli in the police department.” He then looked at Vittal and said ”Vittal, can you brief IG-P ,so that he can be prepared for some noisy action in the streets and arrange for discrete monitoring of Sathish Agarwal’s movements for next few days.’
He then turned to George, ”George , please alert your boys to keep their eyes and ears open to pick up any street gossip .Also make sure that School bus drivers are also alerted. Let some armed escort be arranged for some time with clear instructions that arms to be used on grave provocation.
Ashok Reddy called a meeting of all school bus drivers and briefed them to be extra careful considering the fact that certain vested interests are out to make trouble for the school. There could be attempts to hit the buses and cause damage. So from now onwards every bus will travel with a pilot motor cyclist in front and one at the back. They will be in constant touch with School. Police have been informed and they will cooperate .
One day before school re opening day after the vacation, they all went through a mock drill simulating an attack on the bus
Ashok Reddy was confident that his men would handle any situation on the road. But yet when the attack came he was caught totally by surprise because the attack came right in his own turf , well with in the school complex.. All the six buses were knocked out in their parking stations. A kilo load of sugar was emptied in every petrol /diesel tank and fuel injection system were stymied. The drivers were totally surprised by the development happening just a few minutes they were all ready to roll out on various routes to pick up school children. It all pointed to an insider whose loyalties were suspect. Ashok wanted to find out the insider quickly before he could do more damage. As a matter of routine and reported the matter to the police. The school administration was advised to quickly send SMS alerts to all parents about break down of transport service and declaring an unscheduled holiday to avoid inconvenience to students.
Police responded promptly by deputing Chief Inspector Kamath to help in the investigation. Kamath a great Fan of Dickey was forth right in his comments. He said, ‘Look here Ashok, you don’t have to feel so low. Your staff is all loyal to you and Dickey coming as they are from Army. You just concentrate on those staff who have been recruited from the civil society. I would start looking at any staff appointed by Nalini as Principal .Line them up for my questioning. I will identify the culprit in two minutes flat, trust me’
They hit pay dirt immediately. There were 5 ayahs recruited by Nalini and one male staff to help Nalini as a personal attendant and , who also doubled as her occasional Driver. So he knew how to go about putting car machines out of order. He was made to stand in front of Inspector Kamath.
What is your name?
Govind Agrwal.
One of the poorer cousins of Sathish Agarwal?
Silence.
Answer me , are you related to Sathish Agarwal.
No .
The room resounded with a noise of a hard slap and a painful scream.
Take off your shirt and Pant. I want to search your clothes. The man protested and soon was he was writhing on the floor in great pain as his legs were powerfully kicked and Ashok kicked him in stomach.
The man would not talk.
Ashok grabbed the man by his hair and made him stand up. His clothes were peeled off from his body and he was left standing semi naked.
Kamath told him, ’If you do not tell in the next few minutes ,I will strip you naked, tie you to my police jeep and drag you on the road all the way upto Sathish Agarwal’s house and dump you at his door step. Then I will drag Sathish out of his house and tie you two together and drag you both to the police station where you will be charged with conspiracy to kill school children. You will get a minimum of twenty years of rigorous imprisonment. If you talk and sign a statement mentioning that you damaged the school vehicles as per instructions of Satish Agarwal who paid you ten thousand rupees for doing so ,then you can go home and live happily.. The choice is yours.
Then there is another matter. So far, you have been worked over by the mild mannered Ashok Reddy and me. In another ten minutes, Major Dickey will arrive here and he has his own methods of making reluctant people talk. When he finishes his work, the reluctant man will be so enthusiastic, that he will put seasoned politicians to shame.
Kamath came up with a paper and pen ,forced Govind to sit at a table and placed the writing material in front of him He instructed him to start writing., Govind , now totally dis oriented due to severe beating at the hands of Ashok and Kamath dashed of a confession statement as dictated by Kamath and signed it with a flourish.. Once the statement was in hand, Kamath marched the dazed man off and pushed him into his police jeep and drove off to the police station.
Dickey arranged with Jehangir’s garage to send mechanics to drain the adulterated diesel from all the buses and clean up the engines so that the buses could be used to pick up the children as usual.
Next day, two of the school buses were rammed from behind. Thirteen young children suffered injuries. It was sensational front page news stuff for all newspapers. One of the reporters had filed in a scathing attack on school efficiency , poor condition of buses and drunken drivers becoming perils on the roads. National Model school once paragon of virtues was portrayed as an institution with eroding reputation and falling values .
Dickey read one newspaper after another with increasing anger. There was no report about the vehicles or the criminals who caused the accidents. His lips were closed tight. He clenched his fist and punched the wall.. The fresh coat of paint was smudged and wall got disfigured due to cracks in the paintwork.
Ashok Reddy had anticipated this. Even though he could not prevent the accident, his men who were escorting the buses on their motor bikes, had given chase to offending vehicles, took photographs of vehicle, number plate and drivers. They got to know all about the owners of those vehicles and their plot to damage the school buses.