by RV Raman
‘So far, so good – nothing illegal or unethical. All this is completely above board. Then we began hearing murmurings of new offerings – covert offerings – from Tau Squared. For a fee, their bots would increase the likes on your Facebook page, post fake reviews and ratings for your products.
‘If you have a new e-commerce website, the number of visits to your website and the page hits are important parameters by which your success is gauged. Tau Squared’s bots could increase them tenfold or even a hundredfold, if that’s what you wanted. Bots, masquerading as humans, would visit your website and specified pages as many times as you want.
‘They could also log in as a new customer and create thousands of new customer accounts, thereby inflating your customer count substantially.
‘We also heard rumours of spyware from Tau Squared that would quietly sit in your computer and do absolutely nothing till you visited an Indian e-commerce site. As soon as you did, it would wake up and quietly record your activity – what products you looked at, which websites you visited to shop for a certain product, what you ended up buying and from where and stuff like that. They also looked into your browsing history to see what you had been doing when the bot was “asleep”. We had no way of confirming these rumours, as it is very difficult to trace spyware to its source.’
‘Okay,’ Dhruvi said. ‘Tau Squared seems to be a shady firm, as Harry had claimed. But how does the stolen data fit into this?’
‘We suspect that they also sell stolen data under the guise of “intelligence”,’ Shivkumar went on. ‘One of their offerings is to conduct direct-to-customer promotion campaigns, in which they reach out to specific customers on behalf of their e-commerce clients, sending out targeted emails and advertisements. That, I suspect, is one of the ways they use the stolen data. Some retailers don’t ask questions, you know, especially when someone helps them poach the customers of competitors. They are happy to outsource the dirty work.’
‘Got it. What would you like to do now?’
‘We should consider raiding them; stolen data may just be the route to nail them. If they are in possession of data stolen from MyMagicHat, we can lock them down and investigate every piece of hardware and software they possess. Who knows what else we’ll find?’
‘That’s a call the Cyber Crime Division will take, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, it’ll have to go up the chain, for sure. I’ve been waiting for such an opportunity. But I wanted to know how that will affect your investigation.’
‘Timing will be important, Shiv,’ Dhruvi said slowly. ‘And we’ll have to make sure that Harry and Manoj don’t share the information they’ve disclosed to us with anyone else. While I’m in favour of a raid, I will have to check with my DCP.’
‘How about MyMagicHat?’ Alex asked. ‘They may know something about Tau Squared too. Maybe we’ll get something that points to a possible motive for murder.’
‘Yes…but the fewer the people who know, the better – at least, till the raid takes place. Hmm…perhaps, I can speak solely to Gautam Puraria and leave everyone else out of it.’
Dhruvi made up her mind and rose. The two men rose with her.
‘Let’s get moving, Shiv,’ she said energetically. ‘I’ll take this up my chain of command right away, while you do likewise at your division. After that, I’ll talk to the MyMagicHat CEO. How soon is a raid likely?’
‘It could be as early as tomorrow, if our bosses agree. It’s a weekend too – a good time for raids.’
■
It was past 6 p.m. when Dhruvi walked into Gautam’s office at MyMagicHat. She had called half an hour earlier, informing him that she wanted to meet him alone, and had asked him not to disclose to anyone else that she was paying a visit. She had offered no clue as to what she wanted to discuss.
Gautam lowered the screen of his laptop and looked at her quizzically. Like most people associated with Moin and MyMagicHat, he looked haggard. In addition, there was an air of nervousness, even apprehension, about him.
Dhruvi felt a little sorry for him; it had been a particularly difficult day for him. In addition to Moin’s murder, it appeared that the deal which he had worked so hard to push through was about to collapse. With that came the possibility of the e-tailer unravelling as a company – something else that he had worked hard to build.
But this was no time for expressing sympathy. Matters were moving swiftly after Moin’s murder and the raid on Tau Squared could, in all likelihood, take place the following day. Dhruvi had to make the best use she could of the 48 hours following the murder.
‘Have you heard of a firm called Tau Squared Analytics?’ she asked without preamble, as soon as the cabin door was shut.
‘Tau Squared?’ Gautam repeated slowly.
The frown on his face suggested that something was stirring in his memory. Dhruvi focused her attention on him, studying the expression on his face and noting his body language. He seemed to have heard the name before, but in what context? Was it just another name that he had heard? In which case, his expression would probably have remained blank. If he had had any dubious dealings with Tau Squared, on the other hand, the look of apprehension and nervousness on his face would have become more pronounced. Several moments passed. The frown remained in place and no new expression appeared on Gautam’s face.
‘Is it some kind of a research firm?’ he asked at length. ‘I seem to have heard the name somewhere. But the name suggests an analytics company.’
‘It’s a market intelligence firm. Have you dealt with them, Mr Puraria?’
‘I don’t think so, but you must ask Nilay – market intelligence is his domain. Sundar will also know, as he pays all our vendors.’
‘I don’t want to talk about this to anyone else yet. Is there any way you can check this out on your laptop?’
‘Well, I guess I can check our vendor list.’
Gautam raised his laptop’s screen and clicked his mouse a few times. He then typed something on his keyboard and studied the screen.
‘The name doesn’t figure in our vendor list,’ he said finally. ‘Let me check our seller list.’
A minute later, he shook his head and looked up.
‘Nope. I don’t think we do business with them. Why is this company relevant?’
‘They bought a copy of your stolen data.’
‘What!’
The word was nearly a shout as it shot out of his mouth and Gautam looked as if a bomb had exploded on his desk. He sat up erect, almost leaping out of his chair. His surprise was so spontaneous that Dhruvi couldn’t help feeling that it was genuine. She watched him silently, taking in the dismay spreading across his face.
‘How much of the data did they buy?’ he yelped through a constricted throat.
‘All of it.’
‘Shit!’ Gautam clutched his forehead. ‘When?’
‘Saturday.’
‘Six days back! God knows what they’ve done with it.’
Suddenly, his hand fell away from his face and his eyes bored into Dhruvi’s.
‘Are they also the ones who bugged our office?’ he hissed.
Dhruvi blinked. She had not considered that possibility!
‘I don’t know,’ she confessed and pulled out her phone to have Alex check that angle right away.
When she hung up, Gautam was waiting impatiently for her.
‘You must stop them, Inspector!’ he pleaded. ‘You must stop them from using the data.’
‘We will –’
‘You must find out what they’ve done with it; who they’ve passed it on to! God in heaven! This is an unmitigated disaster!’
‘We’ll do all we can. Meanwhile –’
‘When? You can’t delay this!’
‘Rest assured, Mr Puraria, we’re moving as fast as possible.’
‘Please, Inspector,’ he pleaded again. ‘Every hour matters.’
‘I know, I know,’ she murmured, trying to appease him. ‘We’ve brought in our cyber crime people.
Everything is in good hands – they know exactly how to do this. But it is critical that Tau Squared not be tipped off before they act. That’s why I wanted to speak to you alone. Now please relax a bit, Mr Puraria. The operation is in motion and there is nothing you or I can do, other than to get in the way of the investigation. We don’t want your agitation or distress to tip anyone off.’
Gautam let out a sigh and sank into his chair.
‘You’re right, Inspector.’ He breathed deeply. ‘Thank you. Is Tau Squared the only other buyer or have there been others?’
‘No other buyer, as far as we know. I think Harry has spilled every bean he had. Confronted with a murder charge, he decided to come clean. Manoj, too, swears that there was no other buyer.’
‘Thank goodness for small mercies!’
‘Now, Mr Puraria, could I ask you to bring your attention back to my original question? You seem to have come across Tau Squared’s name earlier. Where was it?’
Gautam’s gaze wandered for a few moments and then froze. His eyes became glazed and a look of shock and dismay spread across his face.
‘No!’ he whispered. ‘Oh God, no!’
In a sudden burst of energy, he yanked open the top drawer of his desk, took a key from it and spun his chair around to face the filing cabinet standing against the wall. With trembling fingers, he unlocked it and began searching for a file. Moments later, he pulled out a pink file from the back of the cabinet and opened it. Flipping through several pages, he finally reached the one he seemed to have been searching for. To Dhruvi, eyeing it from the across the desk, it seemed to be a report of some sort which had the word ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ watermarked across every page.
As he studied the relevant page, Gautam let out an anguished groan and began rubbing his temples as if he had developed a severe headache. Dhruvi waited. Gautam had just had a shock.
‘I don’t know what to make of this, Inspector,’ he said after a long while, ‘but this is why the name was familiar. We do background checks on all employees before we hire them.’ He tapped the page he was reading. ‘This is a confidential report. Have a look at this passage.’
He turned the file around for Dhruvi to read and indicated the passage:
There have been questions raised in certain quarters about the extraordinary growth of the customer base of the Subject’s current employer and the associated surge in the traffic to their e-tailing website. While it is not uncommon to see double-digit monthly growth rates in the fledgling e-tailing industry, the growth rate in this case has surprised some industry watchers.
What may be relevant to the investigation at hand is that this extraordinary growth began two months after the Subject joined the company and has continued unabated since. There are speculations that the company may be using unfair and illicit methods to boost their customer base and web traffic. One method being mentioned is the use of Internet bots (or web robots) to create fake customer accounts and increase web traffic.
However, the Subject has repeatedly attributed (in three separate interviews) this extraordinary growth to their long-standing promotion, wherein every new customer gets ₹50 credited to their account as soon as it is opened. Whether this has led customers to open multiple accounts – and, therefore, a ballooning of the customer base – is not known.
Unsubstantiated allegations suggest that Tau Squared Analytics has been helping the Subject’s employer artificially boost growth parameters by deploying bots.
However, we have found no evidence to support these allegations. We would, therefore, recommend that these speculations/allegations be disregarded.
Dhruvi read the passage twice and looked up at Gautam.
‘Who is this “Subject” the report refers to?’
‘Nilay.’ Gautam was deep in thought now. ‘He used to work at TezShop, a mid-tier e-tailer.’
‘I see… I assume Nilay has access to all data at MyMagicHat?’
‘Everything. But this makes no sense, Inspector. Why would he sabotage MyMagicHat? He works harder than everyone else, Moin included. He is an ambitious man and takes MyMagicHat’s success personally.’
‘How often does Nilay go to the data centre?’
Gautam looked up, puzzled. ‘Never, I should think. He has no business there. Why?’
‘We know that the data leak was at the data centre.’
A look of relief passed over Gautam’s face.
‘That’s right. If Nilay had anything to do with the data theft, it would have happened here in this office, not at the data centre.’
‘I guess you’re right.’ Dhruvi was chewing her lower lip. ‘And I don’t think his wife working at the data centre is relevant.’
‘Too far-fetched.’ Gautam shut the file and shook his head vigorously. ‘I am barking up the wrong tree. The three things that are close to Nilay’s heart are Vibha, Moin and MyMagicHat. What we are speculating about here would adversely impact all three. There is just no way Nilay could have contemplated harming Moin. They were simply too close. Didn’t you see how broken he was by Moin’s death?’
Dhruvi nodded silently. She was inclined to agree with Gautam, but even her short police career had thrown up some surprises.
‘So we are no closer to discovering the motive behind Moin’s murder,’ she said aloud.
‘Perhaps the raid on Tau Squared will yield something – hey! What’s happening?’
He stood up abruptly and gazed through the glass wall of his cabin, his eyebrows knitting together in an angry frown. Dhruvi turned and followed his gaze. A commotion at the office entrance had drawn a couple of staffers. Outside the glass door, a security guard was trying to stop a vagrant from entering the office. The vagrant was struggling to free himself from the guard’s grip as he pushed weakly towards the glass door.
‘Excuse me,’ Gautam said, striding out of his cabin.
Dhruvi followed quickly. In the distance, she spotted Nilay hurrying towards the entrance. As Gautam opened the glass door, she moved ahead of him.
‘I’ll handle this,’ she said and went forward to confront the vagrant.
‘What’s happening here?’ she snapped. ‘What’s the problem?’
Seeing a uniformed policewoman, the vagrant stopped struggling and the guard spoke up.
‘He wants to enter the office, madam,’ he said. ‘He just came up in the lift and went straight to the entrance. Just look at him! It looks like he hasn’t bathed in a year.’
The guard was right. The vagrant, who had a stubble that was at least a week old, was dressed – if the term could be used – in dark trousers and a shirt that had once been of some light shade. The shirt was partly hanging out of his trouser waistband and was stained in several places; he had obviously been sleeping in these clothes. On his feet were a pair of worn-out rubber slippers. Visible through his matted, dirt-encrusted hair was a wound of some sort, the bruise extending all the way down to his face.
Dhruvi took in the details of his appearance in an instant and focussed her gaze on the bruised and dirty face. The first thought that came to her mind was that the man was suffering from some form of mental illness. His eyes which had a haunted, panic-stricken look seemed to dart about, searching short-sightedly for something or someone.
What surprised her was his refined air. Noticing the marks on the bridge of his nose, she inferred that he was accustomed to wearing spectacles, which he had apparently misplaced or lost. It could explain why he looked myopic as he peered around him.
She sensed people gathering behind her. Gautam and Nilay, she knew, were just behind her.
‘What is your name?’ Dhruvi asked the man gently in Kannada.
His haunted eyes froze for a moment and turned to her uncomprehendingly. After a long moment, he opened his mouth and spoke hoarsely.
‘English,’ he croaked. ‘Hindi.’
‘What is your name?’ Dhruvi asked in English.
Confusion appeared on the man’s face, followed by a look of helplessness. Panic flared in
his eyes.
‘Name?’ he whispered in bewilderment.
From behind her, she heard a sharp intake of breath. It was followed by a shout of surprise and joy. It was from Nilay.
‘Puneet!’ he yelled in delight. His voice broke as more words burst from his lips: ‘You’re alive!’
Chapter 19
The look on the man’s face changed abruptly at Nilay’s yell of recognition. Relief shone through in his eyes even as they welled up with tears. The haunted look in his eyes had given way to hope. Then a wide grin appeared on his face. It was as if an ordeal had ended.
‘Nilay!’ he whispered. ‘Oh, thank God! Nilay, I…’
Puneet choked on his words as his feelings got the better of him. Tears coursed down his cheeks and his whole body trembled. As his knees seemed too weak to support him, Dhruvi lunged forward to lend him a helping hand, only to see Nilay springing past her to grab Puneet by the shoulder.
‘Easy, buddy, easy,’ Nilay crooned soothingly. ‘It’s all right. Everything is okay. You’re safe now.’
Disregarding Puneet’s filthy clothes, Nilay enfolded him in a tight hug and guided him towards the entrance to the office. Staffers scampered out of the way, while Gautam stepped forward and took Puneet’s arm.
‘Come, Puneet,’ he said. ‘You’re in safe hands now.’
Puneet flinched and looked up in alarm at Gautam’s touch. Fear returned to his face and he stood frozen for a moment. He then relaxed slowly, trembling anew.
‘Gautam!’ he croaked, allowing himself to be led to the closest discussion room.
Together, Nilay and Gautam guided Puneet into a chair. Dhruvi pulled out her phone to call Alex.
‘Puneet has surfaced,’ she said softly. ‘He seems to have been through some major trauma. Come to MyMagicHat immediately with a police doctor. See if you can bring a psychiatrist too. Quick.’
Puneet sank into the chair and surrendered to the maelstrom of emotions that seemed to be churning within him. He cried unabashedly and his body shook as he unburdened his pent-up feelings.
