Accidental Inquisitors

by Ananth Gunasekaran

  This cleared the air for Jainika, who walked in, gripping a large file. Without waiting for instruction, she began presenting her findings. Occasionally, she circulated papers to her audience. No-one spoke till she ended her presentation at quarter to seven. The stunned look on the CEO’s face convinced Jainika she had nailed it.

  ‘Sir,’ the CEO addressed the ACP, ‘do what you have to do. We promise full cooperation.’

  ‘We will do our duty. I’ll inform my counterpart in Chennai immediately,’ said the ACP, picked his cap from the table and walked out of the room.

  Naresh’s eyes were distant. Jainika walked up to him.

  ‘Good job!’ He avoided her eyes. ‘God save that child,’ he murmured. He was suddenly distracted by someone at the door.

  The CEO’s secretary peeped in, ‘May I sir?’ The CEO beckoned her in and she handed him a phone. The CEO stood up and walked to the corner of the room. His face hardened, he pulled a kerchief out of his pocket and wiped his forehead. He hurried back to the table, flipped open a notepad and scribbled Pijoki Dog breeders. Tei hospitality Ltd. Cuba.

  He suddenly looked at Jainika and beckoned. ‘Get the ACP here. We have been cheated in ways we couldn't have imagined.’

  ‘Naresh. Illegal money in Cuba held by these two companies has been traced to us. Put your best man on it. You’re coming with me.’

  ***

  The Regional Head was just out of his shower when his phone rang. It was Ajay.

  ‘We found where they are. Someone came and picked them from the house in Nungambakkam. Our men followed them to a house in ECR.’

  ‘I will go there right away,’ said the RH

  ‘Take Akhila with you. It will keep suspicion away.’

  ‘I will.’

  At quarter past nine, the RH was driving towards ECR with Akhila in the co-passenger seat. She had picked his call on the first ring that morning. The RH saw her fidgeting with her phone nervously.

  When their car was cruising on the East Coast Road, two vehicles appeared on either side of the car. A speaker came live and a voice said, ‘Stop the car.’ The RH trembled in fear. He saw that Akhila had frozen. ‘Stop the car sir,’ the sound came from the vehicle on the right. When the RH did not slow down, the vehicle on the left went ahead and slowed down in front. The RH had to stop his car.

  Policemen got out of the two cars and huddled around the RH’s car. When he got out, a few policemen surrounded him. They took him to the car in front.

  ‘Don’t worry madam. Everyone is safe,’ a policeman told Akhila and guided her to the car behind. Both the cars took off.

  Akhila was taken back to the TITGIC office.

  ‘What happened?’ she asked nonchalantly.

  ‘We were given orders to take you safely to your office.’ Harish shifted gears and pressed the accelerator hard.

  The RH was taken to the commissioner’s office. The commissioner sat behind a large desk. The moment the RH saw the child sitting next to the office boy, Gopi, he broke down and knelt before the commissioner.

  ***

  When Akhila walked into the office accompanied by three police men, she was surprised to see the CEO waiting at the reception.

  ‘Good morning sir,’ she said, ‘I didn't know you were coming.’

  ‘Good to see you Akhila,’ said the CEO pleasantly, ‘this is one of those unplanned visits.’

  ‘Hi Akhila, please have a seat,’ said Naresh, holding the door to the conference room open.

  The room filled quickly. Akhila looked around. The Head of Compliance, The

  Head of Investigation, the CEO, two men she did not know and a girl she did not know.

  ‘Some more people will join us soon. However let us start this,’ the CEO paused, then said, ‘discussion. Over to you,’ he looked at the Head of Investigation.

  ‘Akhila, are you aware that the employee Priyanka was kidnapped?’ Naresh saw Akhila’s face pale. Two veins appeared on her forehead.

  ‘Why did Ali die?' asked Naresh abruptly.

  Akhila eyes drooped a little and she collapsed on the table, head first.

  ***

  ‘Greetings!’ The commissioner was on an international call.

  ‘Hi!’ came the reply.

  ‘We are working on a case here. We seem to need your input in cracking it.’

  ‘We will help you. Brief me first,’ said John.

  ‘TT Masala is one of India’s reputed players in the spices segment,’ John’s grunt made the commissioner pause.

  ‘What is it Mr John?’

  ‘Nothing gentleman. Go on.’

  ‘Some of their products have been adulterated with another chemical. This adulteration was done by a company that imported the chemical from Canine Delights.’

  ‘Holy cow!’ exclaimed John, ‘What are you saying? Is the company called PMS?’

  ‘Yes!’ The commissioner was surprised. ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Let’s get on a video conference. I will get my team,’ said John and disconnected.

  In less than ten minutes, the commissioner and ACP Dutt were on a video conference. John sat with a young girl to his left.

  ‘Commissioner, Canine Delight makes dog food,’ said John and the commissioner nodded.

  ‘Many dogs died in shelters in Cuba, Vietnam and China. An activist blamed Canine Delight for it. We also had some problem with the waste that came out of their research laboratory here in Wales. We found them importing stuff that were not approved to. One thing lead to the other and we ended up raiding them yesterday.’

  The commissioner listened intently. ‘They export one kind of substance to Cuba, Vietnam, China and India. The importer in India is PMS. And we understand from you that the substance is somehow mixed into food consumed by the Indian people’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I will play the statement made by a scientist at the Research facility after our raid.’ John signalled to the girl on the left.

  A man wearing a white coat appeared on the display. Seated on a stool, the man began to speak.

  ‘I am Dr. Ward. I am a scientist at the Canine Delight research facility.’

  ‘Three years back, the company asked me to create a compound that could naturally facilitate child birth by contracting the uterus. My team and I worked on the project and arrived at a compound that gave the desired result. We named it Pearl X.

  When the company asked me to develop a variation of the compound that could go into regular food, I refused on moral grounds. Since then, nobody spoke to me about Pearl X.’

  ‘Sometime later I got news that one of my counterparts was heading a project with the objective of integrating Pearl X into food products. When I confronted the company, they said the objective of that project was to integrate Pearl X into dog food that can be fed to dogs while the litter. I was then silenced by political means and I did not push the issue further. But word gets out, you know. I heard they were trying to get it into regular dog food.’

  ‘Let me tell you, Pearl X has potassium and papain, which we extracted from unripe papaya. It is common knowledge that unripe papaya was used as an abortifacient in the Indian subcontinent. The ancient Indians had knowledge that papain present in Papaya helps in cell dissociation. This cell dissociation makes pregnancy difficult thus acting as a natural contraceptive. Also, enzyme rich papain in papaya seed can substantially decrease sperm count. But there is one aspect that has been ignored : the genetic makeup. Ripe Papaya from the Indian subcontinent in its natural form may have contraceptive effect on the Indians due to their genetic makeup. To see the similar result on a population of a different genetic makeup, some modification is required.’

  ‘Probably this contraceptive application was tested on dogs and the breeds from the Indian subcontinent had the desired effect while the others perished.’

  ‘This morning, I was presented with some samples by the police. What I found has devastated me. All the samples were modi
fied versions of Pearl X.’

  The commissioner and the ACP looked at each other in shock. The implications were much higher than they initially thought.

  The scientist disappeared and the three Americans appeared on the screen. ‘Commissioner,’ said John, ‘did you see that?’

  ‘Yes, Mr. John, that explains a lot of things,’ the commissioner said, his mind already working on his next moves.

  ‘They have been feeding it to humans in India,’ said John gravely.

  ‘Yes. This is cold blooded,’ said the commissioner, ‘but why?

  ‘Commissioner, do you have anything that might help us?' asked John, ignoring the commissioner’s question. This made the commissioner’s face go hard. He looked at the ACP, who cleared his throat and said, ‘I will tell you what we have found so far.’

  ‘Yes, please,’ said John and signalled to the girl next to him to take notes.

  ‘PMS has been the manpower supplier to TT Masala for over two years. One of the employees of PMS can confessed that they were asked to replace genuine raw material of TT Masala with another material, which is very likely Pearl X. All other PMS employees involved in this activity died in a road accident. The man we have in custody believes it was planned murder and he has his reasons. We are still investigating into that.

  The five employees used to adulterate TT Masala’s products were also used to defraud an insurance company called TITGIC. This insurance company is the only other client of PMS’

  ‘What?’ John looked at the girl on his left. She nodded.

  ‘What is it?’ asked the commissioner.

  ‘We might be close to solving this puzzle. Please complete what you were saying, ACP.’

  ‘TITGIC is the only other client of PMS. We seem to have evidence to prove that PMS played a major role in defrauding TITGIC. We are investigation what happened to the money paid by TITGIC for the fraudulent claims.’

  ‘The owner of PMS was arrested this morning for multiple charges. Kidnapping two people. Physically assaulting two. Coercing a senior employee of TITGIC into lying to the media. We are still investigating.’

  ‘After what you have told us,’ said the commissioner, addressing John, ‘there might be a connection between the happenings at the insurance company in India and this dog food company in your country.’

  ‘There definitely is a connection,’ said John. The ACP sat upright.

  ‘We have been watching some dog shelters closely. Especially the ones where dogs died in large numbers. Many high value transaction in their books were suspicious. We put our men to work and they gave us a report this morning that many of those funds originated from TITGIC.’

  ‘We know that Canine Delight is sending harmful substances to India and PMS is mixing it in TT Masala’s products. We also know that PMS defrauded TITGIC and the funds reached shelters that killed dogs in large numbers. One activist names Melvin has been alleging that Canine Delight is testing some substance on dogs in those shelters. After many attempts he finally obtained proof. He managed to find traces of a chemical in the carcasses of the dogs. He sent us those samples and guess what? It’s Pearl X. So, PMS is our only link.’

  ‘Bigger than what we thought,’ murmured the commissioner.

  ‘The insurance company has also asked for probe into the death of an employee. They suspect that the employee could have been murdered because he got wind of something.’

  ‘Our people are still working. We will require some more time to put our finger on a person,’ said John, ‘and one more thing.’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Send us details of the owner of PMS.’

  ‘Done.’

  ***

  John came live on the video.

  ‘This is unbelievable.’ The commissioner wore a tense expression.

  ‘We scrutinised the books of Canine Delight. Some inconsistencies gave us enough reason to scrutinise the books of the parent company Welfare Notions.’

  A wave of recognition appeared on the commissioner’s face.

  ‘Does it ring any bell commissioner?’ asked John.

  ‘Yes. That’s the company that acquired Chitra Enterprises, an Indian conglomerate.’

  ‘Exactly, commissioner. Chitra Enterprises is a large conglomerate with many companies. One of their ventures was the Frest chain of hospitals.’

  ‘Oh, yes. The fertility clinics chain.’

  ‘Do you see any connection?' asked John seeing the commissioner getting lost in thought. He spoke at length.

  ‘PMS imports Pearl X from Canine Delight and mixes it with TT Masala’s product. Pearl X is a substance that causes complications in the reproductive system. People would go to fertility clinics when they encounter such problems. The parent company of Canine Delight also owns the largest fertility clinic chain in India.’

  ‘Yes, commissioner,’ said John, almost in a whisper.

  ‘And TITGIC has been defrauded and the funds sent across the world to test and research Pearl X.’

  ‘Sir, I still don't see why they had to defraud TITGIC,’ said the ACP.

  The commissioner butted in. ‘So that the experiments at the shelters cannot be linked to them.’ He did not want his subordinate to appear naive.

  ‘And PMS can take the blame if things go wrong,’ added John.The commissioner thought John’s words made his own, seem lesser.

  ‘I need to talk this to my higher ups,’ said the commissioner.

  ‘There’s more.’

  ***

  ‘Geetha,’ the first name Raj uttered when he entered the guest house of TT Masala. Geetha rose from the corner she had sat crying for hours. Seeing him limp broke her heart. She stepped towards him, held his face and planted a kiss on her forehead.

  ‘Yay!’ Priyanka feigned ecstasy. Viki Bala and Amba joined in. Geetha helped Raj sit on the couch. She sat beside him, tears dripping. ‘I am sorry.’

  ‘It’s all right,’ he said and threw his arm around her. Bala saw the momentary flicker in Priyanka’s eyes.

  ‘Hey Arijit,’ squealed Priyanka who had not noticed the silent personality enter the house. She gave him a bear hug and said, ‘Thank you.’ He grinned. Amba hugged Raj. They didn't need words.

  ‘Priyanka,’ said Raj. ‘Yes, darling,’ she said as she put her arms around him from behind the couch

  ‘Thank you and sorry’

  ‘Seriously?’ she asked with a fake expression of disgust on her face.

  ‘This is Viki and this is Bala,’ said Geetha pointing at each of them while uttering their respective names.

  ‘Thanks guys,’ said Raj, ‘I don't know if I can ever repay you.’

  ‘Help us get jobs after we finish college,’ said Viki and laughed.

  Vishnu who was spectating, raised an eyebrow.

  ***

  The commissioner had never been so stunned in his life. What John told him made his head swirl. He had instantly forgotten the subtle blows his ego had taken.

  ‘When Welfare Notions acquired Chitra group, Frest hospitals were completely owned by Chitra group. After the acquisition, twenty-three percent share of Frest was given to two individuals.’

  ‘One of them is Ajay, the owner of PMS. He owns eleven percent. The other owner is in a reputed position in your company.’

  ***

  The RH was at home, on a couch hugging his son and weeping. ‘I will never let them separate us ever again.’ His wife sat beside him with teary eyes.

  The inspector who stood in the hall said for the third time, ‘We have to do it soon sir.’ The RH wiped his face with his sleeve and got up. His statement was important.

  ‘On twenty-eighth of March, Mr. A K Babu had come to meet me. He told me how Ajay had used him. Ali feared losing his life. I assured him I would support him. Ajay met me outside my office and told me my son had been kidnapped. He forced me to agree to his demands if I wanted my son back. I did not go to the police because I was afraid.

 
‘It was at that time that Raj called saying he knew about a fraud. Ajay heard whatever Raj had to say. He headed to the railway station and attacked Raj. His aide arranged for Priyanka to be kidnapped. Ali died in a car crash that night. Then they forced me to do as they say and I informed the media that Raj and Priyanka had eloped after defrauding the company. Though they help my son hostage, I informed the Head of Investigation, Mr. Naresh and requested him to keep away from this mess’

  ‘This morning Ajay called me and asked me to go to an address in ECR. He asked me to take Akhila along. I was on the way there when the police came.’

  ‘Thank you sir,’ said the inspector. The RH ran back to his little son.

  ***

  Akhila woke with a start. She was in a hospital bed and beside her sat a man in Khakhi uniform.

  The commissioner winked. ‘Why stay in this mediocre hospital when you own twelve percent of the largest fertility clinic network in the country, Miss Akhila Kumari?’

  Akhila’s chest heaved and she pressed the call button embedded on the side of her bed. She expected a nurse to rush in but nobody came in.

  ‘Don’t worry. You won’t faint again. We’ve taken precaution.’

  ‘Doctor!’ mouthed Akhila, ‘Doctor!’

  ‘You can keep calling the Doctors but listen to what I have to say.’

  ‘Doctor!’

  ‘Identify accounts of deceased people and gain access to operate them. Find pawns like Ali and Raj to pay money into those accounts.’

  ‘I need my lawyer.’

  ‘Doctor to lawyer. Anyway, listen. Then issue insurance policies to those dead persons based on payments by the pawns. Fake the death of the already dead persons and make claims. Create fake documents to support the claims. And all this in the company where you work.’

  ‘I will not answer to your baseless accusations without my lawyer’

  ‘Did I ask you a question lady? Just listen. When the claims are paid, use this money for two things. One, to run dog shelters in countries that don’t care about testing on animals. Test a substance called Pearl X. Research. Very noble.’