Chapter5
At the AP Police head quarters,Dickey and Mouli were engaged in a lively brainstorming session. Both were extra ordinary men, gifted with special skills to survive in the rough and tough world of crime and criminal investigation. Mouli was younger, keen and highly trained professional while Dickey was old and tough like nails. He had retired from Army and was on panel of several advisory boards of several states for imparting specialised training to police personnel on counter terrorism, organised crime and corporate espionage. He had received an assignment from Government of Singapore to investigate some Indian Doctors frequenting Singapore and engaged in unlawful activities in the medical field. The Singapore government had given him complete freedom to operate as per his needs but put a clause that all his reports on investigation had to be routed through AP Police and Government of India as investigation was on Indian soil and concerning Indian citizen. It was a very well conceived working arrangement as Dickey had already established very good working relationship with AP Police. In fact he was honoured by AP government on more than one occasion and carried a title of Special Officer.
The two officers were studying the reports compiled as on date on various aspects of their investigations.
Extracts from the reports were discussed
1.Dickey had managed to induct many of the ex soldiers from his unit to different hospitals in the city, figuring in the Singapore government reports. He had identified one particular hospital engaging foreigners as couriers carrying select items from place to place with out recording such transfer of items in any record book. He managed to create a situation for police involvement by engineering road accident involving the couriers. His car had carelessly knocked down two youngmen driving a two wheeler. They were not hurt in any way but the scooter they were driving was crushed beyond repair, when it ran into Dickey’s massive carat the time of collision, a container they were carrying disappeared as it got tossed out of their hands into Dickey’s open car, with out any one noticing it. .The young men seemed to be terribly agitated by their loss.. They were confused and wanted to run away from the place but Dickey behaved like a ruffled tycoon and held them in custody till the police arrived on the scene. .
2.The police were prompt and thoroughly professional. They took photographs and recorded the reports made by Dickey as to how the accident happened blaming squarely the young men for the careless driving when they ran into his car. He made a big show of scratches made in the paintwork of his swanky car. When questioned at site, the young men would not respond to questions , refused to give names and addresses requested by the police. They acted as though they did not understand the language. They had no documents on their person. Police had no option but to take them to the police station for further interrogation.
3Mouli who personally conducted the interrogation was frustrated. After two hours of slapping and intimidating all he could obtain was their names. One was called Naidoo and other Francis. Mouli suspected that they were not Indians. He found them tough, obstinate and SILENT. They were scared but they did not talk..Dickey confirmed that they were not Sri Lankans. He guessed they could be Malaysian or Singaporean.
It was decided to hold them in police custody to see who turns up to take them away. It was a minor accident and for the present the police decided to keep a low profile while waiting for some development.
The police recovered some papers from the scooter. The vehicle was three years old, sold originally to One Aravind Mehta residing in a Mehdipatnam address. The young men did not know any thing about the name and address mentioned in the registration. Police piled on question after question. How did they get the vehicle?, where did they come from? Where did they live? what language did they speak ?.
All they got in response was a stoney stare and tight lips.
The fact that they could withstand the police questions with out any trace of concern alerted the police to the fact that the young men were prepared for such a situation. To break them police had to resort to third degree questioning , but for the present Mouli preferred to adapt soft touch. It is a simple accident. Every day in streets of Hyderabad there are hundred such accidents and police don’t get involved so much. Parties involved in accidents normally come to some agreement and police do not bother. Mouli knew that the men were waiting for some one to spring them out.So he decided to wait for the matter to develop on its own.
3.Dickey located the Mehdipatnam address of Aravind Mehta the original owner of the scooter. It was a predominantly muslim area crawling with gamblers and rowdy elements. Dickey noticed that for the faint hearted people the place was unsafe. Dickey identified the correct door to knock and he knocked as there was no bell push in sight. He had to knock some more before the chains rattled and a burly man in typical awami style dress opened the door and growled ,What do you want ?
Dickey; I want to talk to Aravind Mehta.Is he there inside? Please call him out.
Man; ’There is no Mehta behta here. Go away, vanish.
Dickey; I have his two wheeler with me. I want to talk to him about it. Please call him out.
Dickey was polite and patient.
Man; Scooter? you are lucky. You can keep it with you. Mehta has no more use of scooters.
Dickey ; why?
Man with irritation.;Aree, why are you here? .I told you to go and keep the vehicle Are you deaf or just plain stupid ?. Just go and make yourself scarce.
The man saw Dickey was not going to oblige him , so he raised his voice and stepped outside shouting.’ Do you want to be kicked?’
He rolled his lungi up in preparation of a kick. There were three others inside, playing cards. They slapped the cards on a ricketty table and pushed the chairs back. One of the shouted ”what is wrong, Yakub?.’
The man at the door replied ‘some Gurkha wanting to meet Mehta about his scooter’
Then he turned towards Dickey pushing his leg for a kick,’ come on, move now .’
Dickey did not move. He stood his ground and grabbed the extended leg and pulled hard. The man fell backwards hitting his head on the floor. Dickey followed up the throw with punches on face. He pulled the man up and said , ‘when you talk to me , be respectful’ .The man got his face slapped hard a couple of times. He was a big man and was not used to this sort of treatment. He tried to raise his voice and got his nose punched hard. The bone broke and blood spurted out. Dickey pushed the man hard and he fell backwards. His three friends came to the door , now very angry but alert.
One of them asked Dickey, ’who are you?’
Dickey; I am an army officer.
The men became very careful.
Aapko kya chahiye?
.where is Mehta?
He died.
Whose house is this?
This is Mehta’s house. He died. we simply occupied it Yakub here takes care of this place.
Dickey; when did he die?
Two months back
Dickey; Okay, you guys go out now. I want to search this place.
The men did not move.
Dickey; ‘will you get out on your own or you need to be pushed out ?.
They were tough men. They did not take orders from ordinary people. They looked at him. He looked like any other Gurkha who did security work, calm and peaceful. They had never seen city bred Gurkhas indulge in any fight. They thought they could take him on. They moved around him. Once they were sure that he was boxed in , they attacked him. Dickey did not waste time. He ducked , dodged and kicked. Every kick found a bone and that bone cracked. In no time all the four men were on the floor and in pain. One by one they were tossed over to the street. Dickey rang up the police to send some body to take them away. He then shut the door and began his search of the place. The place was a single bedroom tenement. There was a cot with torn mattress and dirty pillows. In the living room , there was card table and four chairs..In the kitchen , there was gas stove on the platform and a wooden cupboard was standing near by. There was a steel trunk containing some old clothes and an envelope containing some old papers, bills .He saw Xerox copy of RC book for the scooter, original invoice and insurance papers all nicely stapled. On the back of the invoice it was written in black ink , in neat letters “sold to Singapore Labs, Dr .Reddy”
Dickey pocketed the RC book copy and other papers. A police van was waiting outside .All four occupants of the house were bundled inside the van. The police closed the door and put a seal on the lock and hung a do not disturb notice board.The police saluted Dickey and took off.
Dickey slowly walked to his car. He had made some progress at last. He had to find Singapore labs and question Dr.Reddy.
4. Mouli took just five minutes to get the address of the new owner of the scooter. RTO had completed the computerisation of all their systems and the moment they entered the Registration number of vehicle into the computer, they could get print out of all names, original purchaser and present owner. They now had address of Dr.Reddy. Mouli had for the first time in the case some thing tangible to work on.. He sent a constable to haul Dr.Reddy in.
5. The container.
Dickey had watched the container fly out of the pillion riders hand at the time of impact of his car on the scooter. The container sailed over his head and landed on the backseat of his open convertible.. He let it be there till the crowd that had gathered around the accident site , dispersed and then he drove over to the police commissioner’s office and handed over the container.
Mouli and Dickey looked at it. They had never seen a container like it. They tried to open and found it had a strange lock that defeated all their efforts to open it. It was heavy. The name of the manufacturer was printed at the base of the container. Mouli noted it down and asked one of his boys to do a google search. Mouli had a hunch. He called up his neighbour a Scientist from the cellular research lab and requested him to come immediately to the police head quarters to look at the equipment. It took some half an hour for the man to arrive. Dickey introduced him to Mouli.’This is Dr.Subba Rao from cellular research lab. I think he will help us to deal with the container.’
Mouli showed the container to SubbaRao and his eyes opened wide. He asked , where did you get it?
Mouli Asked; “Do you know what it is?”
Subbarao;
Of course. I know what it is. I have been pleading with my Director to get us a few containers like this for our labs. He has always turned our request down saying they are too costly and we can not afford it.
Mouli ’what is this?’
It is a cryogenic flask.
A flask?
Not ordinary flask. It is cryogenic.
Talk English , man.
They all laughed.
Yes .it is a unique flask .It is a super cooled container
What is it used for?.
I want to use it to preserve my tissue cultures.
You mean you can use this for storing live organs during transportation from one place to another ?.
The penny dropped.
Mouli rushed to adjacent office of IG Police to inform him of a major break through they had just effected.
IG was excited. He promised Dr .Subba Rao that the police department would procure a dozen containers for use by his labs in next thirty days.
Police had now some concrete evidence to bring the dubious medical practitioners out in the open.,