Chapter8
Leaving Dickey to explore all angles opened by shanta reddy,Mouli put his mind to address hither to un touched lead. The papers collected by Dickey from Aravind Mehta’s house had revealed the name of the buyer of vehicle as Singapore Labs. So far all investigation was on Dr.Reddy and no one had probed the Singapore Labs. He realised that the police had failed to find evidence of connection between Dr.Reddy and the couriers. Police now had to check if the couriers were from Singapore Labs. During interrogation,the mention of name Singapore labs to the couriers did not light up their faces. They simply clammed up more tightly. After a week of interrogation ,police had nothing to show by way of concrete evidence. Mouli now hoped that Singapore Labs may reveal some thing.
Mouli started with assumption that Singapore labs was a pathological set up to work in association with hospitals who needed investigation of blood, urine, serum tests, tissue culture to investigate presence of germs, viruses and other disease causing agents. Mouli sat in front of his Police computer hooked on to their main system data base. He went through list of all such laboratories licenced to operate in Hyderabad area..He jotted down details about Singapore labs .He then got in touch with the police communication center which could look into the computers of cell phone/land line service providers. He obtained information regarding the telephone calls made by the labs, the last bill paid by them and last call made by them if they had terminated their activity.He noted to his satisfaction that the last bill was paid on 4 april and last call was made on 12 april. The accident had taken place on 10 april. It was surprising that from 12 april to present date of 25 april no call was made. So Mouli concluded that for some reason, the labs had stopped working after 12 april. The significance of this was not lost on Mouli. So he expected to turn up some thing interesting from Singapore labs.
He called Inspector Kamath to accompany him and got into the police Jeep and drove away. His office located right under panjagutta fly over was connected to main road leading to banjara hills. He made good time and got held up at masabtank junction.He proceeded to Mehdipatnam. He entered the newly developed affluent section of mehdipatnam and soon was in front of gates of Singapore labs, a modern glass and chrome building standing on vast grounds. There was a small structure for the security personnel and the labs appeared to have closed down shop. He could notice that the building had CCTV and access control system. So it was obvious that the people who operated the facilities did not like to be surprised by strangers walking into their labs to see what they were working on. So they had reason to be careful and security conscious.
He pressed his horn and soon a man emerged from the security building and walked up to the gate. Mouli still sitting in the jeep said, ’This is police, open the gate. we want to look around.’
The man calmly opened the gate and allowed the jeep enter the premises. Mouli got down.
The man asked if the police wanted to meet with some one in particular.With out answering him, Mouli and kamath walked around the premises and admired the landscape .They noticed that the building looked modern and well kept. It was locked from all sides and it was obvious that the concerned people had departed in a hurry. Mouli came back to the security building and told the waiting guard, ‘we would like to inspect the premises Can you open it for us/
Guard; Sorry sir. we don’t have the key with us. You can check with our head office in the city.
Police; Why is the place locked up? Are’nt they conducting any business from this place?
Guard; yes sir. They do conduct business from here only. This is not an Indian company. This is controlled from Singapore. They normally take their vacation during Indian summer. Most of the staff are from Singapore. They all go home during this period.
Police; what about Indian staff? Are there any Indians working here?
Yes sir. Some of the lab technicians and machine operators are Indians. They get two months paid holiday.
Pol; Don’t they normally go in the month of May?,Mouli was shooting in the dark
Guard; That is true sir. But this year, the heat wave has started quite early as you know. All the staff were happy about paid vacation but they also miss the air conditioned comfort.
Pol. There is no vacation for you?
GUARD; No sir, we are not employed by the company. we belong to the agency that has signed a contract with this lab.
Pol; who is in charge of security here?
Guard; There is Capt Manohar at Agency head office. You can contact him at this address.’ the guard gave a card.
Mouli took the card and studied it for some time. Then he asked, ’do you maintain any registers with you.
Guard; Yes sir.There is a staff register and goods movement register.
Mouli collected all the registers, made out a list and gave the guard one copy as receipt. From the staff register , mouli noted that there were in all 14 names, 5 local and 9 singaporeans. Dr Damodharan was said to be in charge of the labs. He lived in the premises. The movement register showed that there were no entries after 12 april .
Mouli asked; All the staff went on vacation at the same time? Was it not strange?. I thought normally they staggered the leave in such a way that somebody or other stayed back. Did you get any impression that the vacation was advanced for SOME reason?
Guard; I do not know about that. The Indian staff was very happy that they got two months salary as bonus in advance of vacation. The chief however seemed very much rushed. Yes it was strange that they all left at the same time.
Pol; Did the chief make any remark at all about when he was likely to return? He lived in the premises, you said. was his family with him?
Guard; He lived alone.
Pol; when he left, did he carry any luggage with him. was it light? You have not made any mention of luggage being carried, in your movement register.
Guard; He carried his personal baggage along with some office files. We enter only material pertaining to labs , not personal effects.
Pol;okay. you have been helpful. Please tell your chief to visit my office at the police head quarters.My name is Mouli, police commissioner. The guard noted the name in the register. and promised that he would report it to his chief
Mouli found he had no more questions. He decided he would obtain proper search warrant to open the premises for more investigation.
The guard walked up to the gate and waited till the police car left. Back in his office , Mouli called Inspector Lakshmi, a smart looking woman in police uniform and told her,’Lakshmi , can you take a few girls to conduct a survey in the neighbourhood of this Singapore labs. I want to know if the lab offered any service to local community, services like testing of blood, urine, pregnancy tests, thyroid etc
He went through the registers .The movement of goods register showed that only samples were being carried back and forth. The names of hospitals were mentioned as hospital 1, 2, 3 no names were mentioned. .
Names of people carrying the samples were also not entered. Under the name column ,description written was ‘through courier’
At the back of the register , in the last page a square box was drawn with names of three hospitals .Mouli whistled .Captain Manohar called to say that he would call on Mouli by 5.30pm
Mouli was not sure if he was going to get any thing out of Manohar. He went through discussion in bored manner
The captain had served in the army on short service commission for ten years. He found out soon enough that he had made a wrong choice about career in army. He managed to get administrative positions and quit the army at the first available chance. He started this security business and chose pharma companies. He had only half a dozen clients and engaged in all 100 people, all ex servicemen from the local army welfare centre. Life was simple. He made enough money and there were no problems. He maintained that he had seen nothing suspicious about Singapore labs.Dr Damodharan was a fine gentleman, easy to deal with.
About Damodharan’s personal life, the captain had nothing to say.
He was like a scientist always busy in his labs. He did not mix too much with others. He attended all scientific seminars and also presented papers occasionally. He had weekly meetings with Dr Praful Reddy , Dr pramod reddy and Dr Sashank rao .
To a question, whether he had the key to the premises, he said no. Damodharan never handed the key to the premises to any one.He kept all the keys with himself. As he lived in the premises, keys were always available.
Where did the meetings with the three doctors take place .
They met always at Mariotte hotel
Mouli noted that Mariotte hotel belonged to a Singapore based company and was preferred by doctors from Singapore.
Mouli thanked Manohar and advised him to be available for further enquiry if needed. Manohar left there after.
Inspector Kamath came to inform that search warrant was ready. He had assembled a group of doctors and lab technicians as search party to scrutinise equipment and papers that they were likely to find with in the hospital. Mouli sincerely hoped that he would get some clinching evidence to nail the culprits.