‘Look, Pande, the problem is not him. The problem isn’t the five thousand crores. It’s those bastards who got away. It’s those bastards who will plough back the money into Kashmir and fund anti-national activities. We now have to worry about the terrorists handing over the cash to anti-social elements and stone-pelters in the Kashmir valley, who in turn will disrupt life there. We have to worry about that money being used to support manufacturing of arms and ammunition in Kashmir, to be used against us. Those are our bigger worries.’
‘I understand, sir. But how will we balance the RBI’s books? How will we explain the absence of five thousand crores?’ the Finance Minister asked.
‘I have thought this through. You need not worry.’ The PM walked towards his table. ‘But first, I need to call the Swiss Prime Minister and tell him that Carlo Pinotti has left the country safely.’
Siddharth Pande started to leave, but then stopped and turned around to face the PM, a look of concern on his face. ‘Aditya Kesavan called,’ he said. ‘He wanted to meet Carlo Pinotti. Should I tell him that you have told Carlo Pinotti to hold on printing that money?’
‘No. Don’t tell the Governor anything. He doesn’t need to know,’ the Prime Minister said, his face grim. ‘We were wrong about Kesavan. He is not our guy. He’s not a man we can trust. Even Harsha Ranjan was better than him.’ Pande nodded, turned around and walked towards the door. Just as he was about to open it, the PM spoke again. ‘I have a plan, Pande. I think it’ll save us from this mess. But make sure you don’t tell anyone about it. Especially make sure that you don’t tell the Governor.’
70
Evening, 3 November 2016
DELHI
Kabir Khan looked at the papers that D’Souza had dumped on his table – the response from the RBI. The currency notes that had been found on the dead men had been released from the Delhi RBI Issue Office for Tripura by an Executive Director of the RBI, Rajdeep Sarkar.
He looked at Victor. ‘I’m glad you came to meet me, Victor. You were always the brightest member of my team, and with this, you have proven me right in my assesment.’
Victor smiled, reddening with embarrassment.
Kabir Khan picked up the response from the NCRB that was also lying on his table with the rest of the papers. Along with the NCRB response was a copy of the FIR filed against Imran Shaikh, the dead man whose fingerprints had been found on record.
The FIR stated that Imran Shaikh had gotten into a scuffle with an ATM security guard. The guard had filed a police complaint. An attempt to murder case had been filed against Shaikh and he had been arrested. This explained the fingerprints being available with the NCRB. He had been out on bail when he died in the car crash.
‘Come,’ said Kabir Khan, throwing the papers back on his table and getting up from his seat. ‘We need to meet the ATM security guard who filed a case against our man. He will be able to throw some light on the case.’
‘I will go myself, sir. Why do you want to bother yourself for such a small case?’ Victor protested.
‘Time is of the essence, Victor. We need to get to the bottom of this, ASAP. It’ll help if I’m there. Let’s go.’
As they were exiting his cabin, Kabir Khan suddenly stopped. ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘ I need to make a call before we go.’ He walked to the table and pulled out the papers that he had been reading through earlier. He cross-referenced something from the CBI database and dialled a mobile number. The phone rang a few times before the person on the other end picked up. ‘Kabir Khan from the CBI, sir. Are you travelling?’ he said.
He listened to the answer and then said, ‘I see. May I ask which part of the world you are in?’
Another pause. ‘Aah. Switzerland… Are you busy? No problem, sir. Do give me a call whenever you get free.’
With that, Khan thanked whoever he had been talking to and hung up.
He looked at Victor and said, ‘Once we are done with the guard, we need to go to the NCR Police Control centre. I am sure we will find something there.’
71
7 November 2016
MUMBAI
Pallavi was lying next to Aditya, an arm thrown across his chest. She looked up at him and said, ‘Three days. We are only three days away from the sixty days’ period. I’m beginning to get worried now, Aditya.’
‘So?’ Aditya asked nonchalantly.
‘What do you mean, SO?’ Pallavi sounded angry. ‘Where is the money going to come from? I was hoping you would fix it. You had promised. And now, I am stuck. Oh god, what wil I do?’ She was beginning to get hysterical. Quite a contrast to the Pallavi he had made love to a few moments back.
‘Don’t worry,’ Aditya said, his right hand moving up to his chest to demonstrate that he was with her. He understood Pallavi’s paranoia. Glancing at his watch, he moved Pallavi’s arm away. Getting up from the bed, he threw on his shirt and said, ‘It’s all sorted now, Pallavi. Everything has been arranged. Mehul will be transferring money into your account either today or latest by tomorrow. You can start making the repayment soon.’
‘Really?’ Pallavi jumped out of the bed. Naked. ‘Thank god!’ she said, as she leaned over and kissed him.
‘No, don’t,’ Aditya gently pushed her back. ‘Don’t start something we can’t finish. I have to leave now. Catching an early-morning flight to Delhi. There is a briefing at the PMO tomorrow afternoon.’
‘Okay, fine.’ Pallavi leaned back against the headboard, pulling up the bedsheet around herself. ‘But I don’t get why Mehul agreed to loan me the money? What have you done for him?’ she asked, looking at Aditya.
‘Do you really want to know?’ Aditya smiled, even as he reached out to his phone, which was ringing.
‘Yes Rajdeep,’ he said, the moment he picked up the phone.
‘We have a problem, sir.’ Rajdeep sounded worried.
‘Problem? What problem?’ Aditya asked, his heart beginning to sink.
‘The CBI called me a couple of days back. They called again today. Some Kabir Khan. He was asking questions about the money we released. I tried calling you before but your phone was switched off.’
‘You should ask him to speak to the Prime Minister. Or maybe the FM. They will be able to answer his questions better.’
72
7 November 2016
DELHI
Later that evening, Kabir Khan was on the way home when his mobile phone rang. It was a private number.
‘Khan? Kaise ho?’ Kabir immediately recognized the voice. It was the Home Minister.
‘Sir!’ he said. ‘Hope all is well?’ He knew that the Home Minister would not call him directly unless something was wrong.
‘You called Rajdeep Sarkar, the ED at the RBI?’
‘Yes sir. This was for a case pertaining to a dead man in Hazratganj. Some unaccounted cash was found on him. I was trying to seek some information regarding the same. Unfortunately, Sarkar is in Switzerland on a holiday. I couldn’t speak to him for too long.’
‘And what were you doing at the NCR Police Control room?’
‘I was checking out the CCTV feed from the cameras on Delhi roads. The dead man was a driver at a cash and logistics management company. I wanted to figure out what he was doing on a particular day.’
‘Let that go, Khan,’ The Home Minister instructed. ‘The muck runs deep. All I can say that whatever happened was in the national interest. Digging into the story will only cause grief. Maybe a scandal.’
‘All scandals cause grief at some level, sir,’ Khan replied, then quickly came back on track. ‘The money we found was not the money sent to the hijackers, sir,’ he added.
‘Khan!’ the Home Minister exclaimed. ‘How the hell did you …?’ But he stopped himself. Khan was one of the best officers the CBI had. It wasn’t surprising that he’d managed to find out about the hijacking ransom.
‘Don’t worry, sir. I understand the sensitivity. I will not speak a word about this to anyone. But I am convinced this is deeper than we can imagine,’ Khan said.<
br />
‘What makes you think so?’
‘Can I meet you today, in person?’ And then, looking at his watch, he realized how late it was. ‘Or maybe tomorrow?’
‘You can come over now, Khan. We have an important Cabinet meeting tomorrow. I won’t be able to take out time. Come now. We will be waiting for you.’
‘Sure,’ Khan said, and hung up, wondering just for the moment who the ‘we’ was.
73
7 November 2016
DELHI
Kabir Khan reached the Home Minister’s residence and was shown into the study.
Not two minutes had passed than a kurta-pyjama-clad Home Minister walked into the room. ‘Kabir! Good to see you again,’ the minister said.
Kabir stood up to greet him when he noticed that another man had followed the Home Minister into the room. Siddharth Pande, the Finance Minister.
‘Sir,’ Khan said, greeting both men.
‘Let’s sit, Khan,’ the Home Minister said, as he pointed towards a sofa set in one corner of a large room. ‘I don’t need to tell you that this is a very sensitive issue. I don’t know how you figured it out, but this cannot get out. If word leaks, all the good work the government did in getting those people back will be mud. You need to let
it go.’
‘I would have, sir, more so because it was a normal accident. Those four guys were not killed. They were driving under the influence of alcohol and crashed the car. So this isn’t a murder investigation. It is the money that was found on them that raises questions,’ Kabir said.
‘Now that you know so much, this was indeed the money which was paid to the hijackers about ten days ago, the day they released our people. We had thought that it would take longer for this money to be cycled back into the country, but clearly these men have become super efficient. They managed to get the money back into the country within ten days,’ the minister sighed, shaking his head.
‘But sir, that’s the issue. This money did go out of the RBI chest, but it never made it to the terrorists. It never even left the country,’ Khan said.
‘What?’ the FM exclaimed, shocked. ‘Why do you say that? How can you be so sure?’
‘Because Imran Shaikh, one of the men who died in the crash, was a driver for one of the armoured vans that transferred cash to the airport on the day the passengers were released from Kandahar.’
‘How do you know this?’ the Home Minister said, the shock in his voice apparent. Kabir Khan seemed to know every detail of their so-called covert operation.
‘Imran had a run in with an ATM security guard a few months back. This was when he had gone to refill the ATM. The ATM guard had filed a police complaint. At that time, his fingerprints were taken and fed into the central database of the National Crime Records Bureau. We traced it back from there.’
‘And the money paid to the hijackers. How did you get to know about it? Now many people know about it, Kabir,’ the Home Minister asked.
‘When I called Rajdeep,’ Kabir Khan started to explain, ‘he acted cagey. The RBI sending out cash to currency chests is normal. The first red flag was raised by his behaviour. When I pushed him, he told me that this was part of a large consignment of cash sent from the RBI issue office. A cursory Google search told us that it was on the day the terrorists were released in return for our people. Spurred on by this behaviour of the RBI officer, we checked the footage from the CCTV cameras outside the RBI vault, and saw almost twenty vehicles leave it that evening. And what was even more strange was that the CISF weren’t accompanying the vehicles. We called Rajdeep back and he confirmed that often private security is used for cash transfers, especially when they use third-party armoured vans. We then followed those vans through a network of CCTV cameras, at NCR Police Control Room’s, media centre. It was not difficult to figure out that the money was delivered at Palam Airport. And that was around the time the two of you had accompanied Sajid Mir to Kandahar. From there, drawing the right conclusion wasn’t difficult,’ Kabir finished.
‘That still doesn’t explain how that lot of cash you recovered from the crash didn’t leave the country.’
‘Can I use your computer for a second?’ Kabir Khan asked the Home Minister.
‘Go ahead.’
Kabir walked to the computer at one corner of the study and accessed the internet, putting in a few keywords on the Google search bar.
Siddharth Pande and Gopinath Shinde leaned over him to peer into the screen. Kabir pulled up a Hindustan Times article. The headline of the story was ‘The Great Oil Robbery of Barmer’.
Pointing towards the story, Khan added, ‘Looks like our guys followed the same modus operandi. Unfortunately for them, I was the one who investigated this scam. Been there, done that.’ Kabir grinned.
Siddharth Pande read through the entire article and it started getting clear to him. ‘Damn. Wonder how much this driver, Imran Shaikh, siphoned off,’ he lamented. ‘Not that it matters now, yet a heist is a heist, whether he siphoned off ten lakhs or fifty lakhs.’
‘How about three hundred crores? A full truck!’
Siddharth Pande’s eyes popped out. ‘All by himself?’
‘Do you think he would have pulled it off, all on his own, sir?’ Kabir asked.
‘Then who?’
The grin on Kabir’s face grew wider. ‘Sir, why don’t you take a wild guess?’
74
8 November 2016
DELHI
The venue was the PM’s residence. The entire Cabinet was in attendance. A few bureaucrats, all the Deputy Governors of the RBI and senior representatives from all statutory bodies were present. Aditya Kesavan was seated in the front row, along with the Finance Minister. At six p.m. sharp, the Prime Minister walked into the room and strode up to the podium with confident steps.
Two weeks had passed from the time the IC-814 saga had hit national headlines. The entire drama was now relegated to the fifth and sixth pages of national newspapers. Television channels had got bored of interviewing the families of those in the plane and had long stopped talking about it. But the way the PM began his speech, it was clear that he had not forgotten.
‘Not so long ago, one of our commercial airlines was hijacked and taken to Kandahar. We let go of a dreaded terrorist to bring back our people safely. When we won the elections a few years back, one of the main promises we made was the safety and security of our people. We did what we had to, to make sure we kept that promise.
‘We are a nation of hard-working people. But in our neighbouring country, terrorists rule the roost.
‘Terrorism today is a frightening threat. So many have lost their lives because of it. But have you ever thought about how these terrorists get money to fund their activities? Our enemies from across the border run their operations using fake currency notes. This has been going on for years. We’ve seized fake five-hundred- and thousand-rupee notes countless times.
‘In our neighbouring nation, the government currency presses print not just Pakistani currency, but also the Indian rupee. Notes which they distribute in areas around the border. Hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees have thus far been printed and distributed by them. Our own poor people are then lured by money to fight their motherland. This is economic terrorism.
‘There comes a time in the history of a country’s development when a need is felt for a strong and decisive step. For years, this country has felt that corruption, black money and terrorism are festering sores, holding us back in the race towards development. When we came to power, we promised that we will root out black money from this country. Today, the time is right for us to make good on those promises.
‘To break the grip of corruption and black money, we have decided that the five-hundred-rupee and thousand-rupee currency notes presently in use will no longer be legal tender from midnight tonight, that is 8 November 2016. This means that these notes will not be acceptable for transactions from midnight onwards. The five-hundred and thousand-rupee notes are also the most
counterfeited notes that terrorists use. These are the notes that are hoarded by anti-national and anti-social elements. From midnight tonight, these will become just worthless pieces of paper. While we ban these notes, we are committed to protecting the rights and the interests of honest, hard-working people. Let me assure you that notes of one hundred, fifty, twenty, ten, five rupee and all coins will remain legal tender and will not be affected.
‘This step will strengthen the hands of the common man in the fight against corruption, black money and fake currency. To minimize the difficulties of citizens in the coming days, several steps are being taken.’
There was utter and complete silence in the room as the PM went on speaking, outlining the steps the government was taking to make sure that people could exhange the notes at their bank branches.
Aditya Kesavan, sitting in the first row, felt himself grow almost dizzy with shock. He sat frozen as the PM’s words washed over him. As the magnitude of what he had gotten into dawned on him, he felt his heart beat faster, and sweat broke out on his forehead. How was he going to handle the situation he had got into? How was he going to handle the situation he had got Mehul into? And what about Pallavi? He began to panic.
Oblivious to all this, the PM continued, ‘Along with the withdrawal of the ₹1,000 note, we will also be introducing a completely new ₹2,000 note with enhanced security features; security features which the counterfeiters across the border will not be able to duplicate. A team comprising the RBI Governor, Finance Secretary and the Finance Minister have overseen the entire process of introducing the ₹2,000 note. This has been a top secret mission, and for it to succeed, it was necessary for us to keep it that way. I’m glad that we have managed to hold it close to our chest. I would like to thank our RBI Governor Sh. Aditya Kesavan, Hon. Finance Minister Sh. Siddharth Pande-ji and Finance Secretary Sh. Ranjeet Kumar-ji for their work towards making this happen. Given the sensitive nature of this project, we have had to execute it outside India. Le Da Spire, the worlds largest currency printing company, has printed those notes at its facility in Switzerland and the new notes are already in.’ Sensing a few raised eyebrows in the audience, he added, ‘The Special Investigation Team of the CBI had cleared them of any wrongdoing. The currency notes of the new denomination are waiting at the airports all over India to be sent to the various cash vaults across the country.
Don't Tell the Governor Page 18
