The report confirmed their worst fears. What the dumper driver told them was true. The Indian couple was on the road, long before the garbage dumper ran over them at the intersection of Odeongasse and Zirkusgasse. This particular intersection, a couple of miles away from the Hofburg Palace, gets very lonely at night, with little or no traffic. Hence speeding was very common. The one who had killed the two had left them there hoping someone would run over them and it would appear as an accident. And the Vienna police, among the smartest in Europe, had nearly been taken in by this charade.
The post-mortem report put the hour of death at around 1.30 a.m. Vienna time, whereas the dumper ran over them around 3.00 a.m. If they were killed, who had killed them? If robbery was not the motive, what was?
‘It’s come Gerhard.’ A grim-looking Schroeder announced as he walked into Purtsi’s room. When Purtsi gave him a blank look, he waved the clutch of papers in his hand and added, ‘the post-mortem report.’
‘What caused their death?’
‘Overdose of drugs.’
‘Drug overdose? What drug?’ Gerhard showed no emotion on his face.
Johann Schroeder pulled out a piece of paper and referred to it. ‘The initial autopsy report says that this is on account of an overdose of sedative chloral hydrate, that became significantly more lethal and toxic in combination with other prescription drugs in their system, specifically Lorazepam, Oxazepam, Diazepam. The male was also found to have consumed Benadryl and Topamax, an anticonvulsant that aggravated the sedative impact of chloral hydrate. Although the individual levels of benzodiapines in their system would not have been sufficient to cause death, their combination with a high dose of chloral hydrate possibly led to their death.’
‘Oh my God! Where did they get their hands on all this?’
‘We are trying to figure it out sir.’
‘Does this mean that we are also dealing with a drug cartel here?’
‘Can’t say for sure, because some of these are prescription drugs. But. . .’
‘But what Johann?’
‘The post-mortem report points to minor indentations, divots, at a few places on the bodies of the Indians, that are not natural for drug injections, if you are a regular. Which means that they had been held forcibly and the drugs were injected into their bloodstreams. It’s definitely not an accident Gerhard. It’s clearly cold-blooded murder.’
‘That doesn’t sound good. What else do we know about the Leles Johann?’
‘They were seen drinking at the hotel pub shortly before twelve. The hotel CCTV confirms that they left the hotel together at around midnight. We don’t have any information on where they went afterwards.’
‘Any other clues?’
‘No Gerhard, no more clues. We’re at it.’
‘We will have a problem Johann. If this gets out, the media will hound us. We have to make sure we have answers for them.’
‘Yes Gerhard. Unfortunately there is nothing for us to work on. There are absolutely no clues. It seems to be the handiwork of professionals.’
‘I don’t care Johann. Round up a few people. Present a few suspects, the regular stuff that we do. We need to push back till we have something to show for in this case.’
‘Will do Gerhard. If something goes out of hand, am counting on you to bail me out.’
‘Yes of course. As usual my friend, we need to keep our pride intact. Don’t we?’
28
GB2 HQ, Mumbai
31st January 2012
Karan Panjabi’s reputation preceded him. Indrani, who was cagey about meeting him, had softened when she heard about Raymond’s death. She knew Karan from the days that he was in GB2. Karan had quit GB2 and moved to Citibank after an acrimonious showdown with Deepak Sarup which was the outcome of a point of no return reached in a clash of personal egos. After a short stint in Citibank, Karan moved on to The Times of India group and was with them as their finance editor. He had sensationally shot to fame when he had exposed the underbelly of banking and had helped uncover a rampant money-laundering racket run by some insiders within GB2. His run-in with the then CEO of GB2, Ronald McCain, was part of folklore in GB2. However, once Ronald saw the real side of Karan, he developed a huge amount of respect for him.
‘Indrani, Raymond was a close personal friend. I hired him into my branch. I brought him into GB2. It pains me to see what became of him. The suicide note. . .’ and he became silent.
‘What about it?’
‘It’s an old one. Raymond had been carrying a suicide note in his jacket for long Indrani. I caught him once when I borrowed his oversized jacket, as I spilt coffee on mine just before a crucial meeting. This was when I was in branch banking, years ago. I had found a note in his inside coat pocket and confronted him. He told me about the times he had felt like giving up everything because of his personal issues and frustrations in life. The note was a result of those occasional fits of imbalance he would suffer from. However, he had changed over the years. Become a lot tougher. So it’s unlikely that he would have taken the extreme step. When I met him yesterday, I jokingly asked him if he was still carrying the suicide note. He smiled and patted the inside pocket of his coat.’
‘Which means he still had it!’
‘Yes Indrani, we can’t make any kind of assumptions based on the suicide note. It would have been found on him even if he had been killed.’
Indrani kept quiet.
‘Raymond called me last night Indrani. He said that he had tried to reach you too. But you were busy.’
‘Yesterday was a bad day Karan.’
‘It can’t be worse than losing your own life Indrani.’ When Karan said this, Indrani felt miserable. Could she have saved his life had she spoken to him? Maybe yes. . .maybe not.
‘Raymond knew something no one else did,’ Karan continued. ‘He apparently tried to bring up the issue a few times in the past, but every time he did, he was shot down. Raymond believed that whatever he was trying to bring up to you could have been the cause of Harshita’s death. He wanted to tell you about it. He had lost faith in the senior management. Obviously someone figured out what he was up to and silenced him forever.’
‘What did he know that cost us these lives?’
‘I’ll have to figure that out Indrani. When he called me, we spoke for a brief while. After which it was becoming a bit difficult to speak openly. He was in a crowded place and so was I. The poor mobile signal near the Ghatkopar station too didn’t make things any easier. He wanted to meet in person so he could tell me everything that he knew. When I reached the place he had asked me to come to, there was no sign of him. I waited for a long time. Tried calling him multiple times, but to no avail. This morning, I got to know that he had committed suicide. If he had to commit suicide, he would atleast have waited till I knew what he wanted the world to know.’
‘Hmm,’ Indrani was lost in deep thought. She was worried. What was going on?
‘Last night Indrani, when Raymond was killed, his laptop and his phone disappeared. I know for sure that if we go through the backup of all his mails and data on the server, we will be able to get to something.’
‘Why would you get involved in this? If it is such a big issue.’
‘Indrani, Raymond was my friend. A dear friend. I want his killers to be brought to book.’ He paused and added, ‘Out of everyone else in the world Indrani, he chose me to confide in. I can’t let his faith in me down.’
‘And why would I let the media into this mess? You will only complicate things for me. We have a capable enough team to investigate this. If we do find anything amiss, we will ourselves get the law enforcers involved.’
‘Indrani, please don’t make the mistake we made last time. Ronald McCain refused to listen to me when I met him to warn him of the consequences of his actions. He chose not to listen to me and the organization was hauled over coals for what later transpired. I have worked for GB2 for seven years of my life. I would never have quit GB2. You know that. Now that
I have, I can assure you that not a word of what I find out will go out to the press. I will not carry any expose or article on this issue. . .But. . .’
‘But what?’
‘Once we get to the bottom of this, you will allow me a day’s lead over the other media. I will carry this story first.’
‘How can I trust you? You only have your interest in mind.’
‘Indrani, remember I came to you myself. If I so wished, I could have made sure that tomorrow morning’s newspaper would carry the transcripts of Raymond’s call with me. That could have been the lead story and would have created enough sensation and consequent problems for GB2 to handle. But I don’t want to do that. I owe my career to this bank.’
Indrani thought about it for a moment. She was caught in a tight spot. If she went ahead and internally investigated what Karan was saying, she ran the risk of the truth being brushed under the carpet. She could in fact have ignored what Karan was saying. Raymond’s death would have passed off as a suicide. Things would have gone on as they normally do. But carrying a rot within could only have disastrous consequences, albeit at a later date. And therein she ran a risk of the media sensationalizing the case, given the revelations Karan could have made on the basis of his dialogue with Raymond. She was caught between a rock and a hard place.
However, when she thought about it, what Karan was saying made sense. He could have gone ahead and published the details of Raymond’s conversation with him, which could have proved to be damaging. But he didn’t. That showed that he was genuinely interested in working with GB2 in resolving this issue. ‘And Indrani,’ Karan interrupted her thought process, I’m not sure we know who to trust and who not to in your management team. It’s possible that there are only one or maybe two black sheep, but they are dangerous. Most importantly, we don’t know who they are. And not knowing who they are is going to seriously impact your ability to investigate this internally.’ This clinched the deal.
‘Okay agreed. Meet me in my office in the next one hour.’
‘Thanks Indrani. Please do not speak about this to anyone. It’s preferable that we do not tell people what we are up to.’
‘Thanks Karan,’ said Indrani as he turned to leave.
‘Anything for you Indrani.’ Before Indrani could shut the door, he turned back, ‘and one last request Indrani’. She nodded. ‘Do you mind if I get Kavya to work with me on this? Since we don’t know who is on our side and who is not, we need someone who we can be sure about. And Kavya is one person I am willing to bet my last shirt on.’ Karan and Kavya had been in a relationship for a long time. They fell apart after a three-year courtship, only to be reunited when Karan was busy exposing the huge money laundering scam that had engulfed GB2, nearly consuming Deepak Sarup in it. ‘And she is good with systems and data extraction.’
‘Sure. You can work out of my boardroom for the next two days. Am not too sure we will be able to hold things back beyond two days. There will be too many questions’.
‘Yes Indrani. We will give it our best shot over the next forty-eight hours. If we get to the bottom of it, then great. If not, then we will let the pros come in and handle. I’ll meet you in your office in an hour. I will brief Kavya too.’ And Karan left.
Within an hour, Karan was in Indrani’s fifth floor office. Indrani had already briefed Jacqueline, so she was expecting him. Karan went in straight into her office, without completing any formalities at the entrance. Normally, he would have had to write his name down as a visitor in the register placed at the entrance. And then it would be there for everyone to see. Thankfully no one saw him enter Indrani’s office.
Kavya too joined them within five minutes. It was relatively easy for her to be smuggled in. She had a reasonably low profile in the bank and no one really knew her in the head office.
Indrani who had reached by then led them to an attached boardroom. The boardroom had two doors—one that opened into the lift lobby to enable visitors to walk in, the other opened, into Indrani’s room. ‘Folks, this is your office for the next two days. I understand we are working on a hypothesis and all our efforts will be towards proving that hypothesis. You believe that the two were murdered; cops believe one was an accident and the other was a suicide. This effort is only to protect us and get to the bottom of it, so that recurrence of such calamities may be avoided. Remember, whatever findings we have at the end of two days, I will have to report. So whatever help you need, whosoever you need to be pulled out, just ask. Jacqueline here has access to my mailbox; she can send and receive mails from my ID. Use her. There is no one else I trust more than Jacqueline. She will be my conscience keeper in this. And most importantly, she will validate the need, in case you ask for any sensitive data.’
‘We’ll do our best Indrani.’
‘If anyone asks you what you are doing here, the response to that is that you are doing a front page story on GB2 in your Sunday edition and that’s why you are here, to complete your research. Try not to interact directly with people unless you really have to. Maybe once you finish this investigation, you can genuinely consider doing a front-page story on the management team at GB2. We will talk about it later though.’ Karan, for the first time that day, smiled. ‘Sure Indrani.’
‘I’m around in the next room.’ She looked at Jacqueline. ‘Cancel all my appointments for the next two days. This is more important. I wish I had cancelled yesterday’s appointment. Maybe then, Raymond would have still been alive.’
The phone on Jacqueline’s desk rang and she ran to pick it up. ‘Yes Tanuja. She’s in a meeting right now.’
‘I need to meet her. It’s urgent.’
‘She is really tied up now, Tanuja. She has also asked me to cancel all of today’s and tomorrow’s appointments.’
‘Does she know about Raymond’s suicide? Has Juliana mentioned it to her?’
‘She is aware of it, yes.’
‘Alright then, that’s what I wanted to brief her on. The press might be coming in to talk to us. We need to be prepared.’
‘Let me check with her.’
‘Sure. I’ll wait.’
Jacqueline walked back into the conference room. ‘Tanuja is on the line. She wants to come up and brief you on the Raymond issue. Can she come up now?’
‘Ask her to come in ten minutes. I will be done with these guys by then.’
After giving them instructions Indrani left. Karan looked at Kavya. ‘So. . .’
‘So?’ Kavya replied.
‘How are you?’
‘Quite the same. Not much has changed since last evening, when you left our dinner midway and never came back.’
‘In fact I came back after an hour and a half. You had left by then.’
‘I couldn’t sit in the restaurant, all alone, waiting for you to come back.’
‘I called you after that and explained, didn’t I?’
‘Yes of course you did Karan. But it’s okay. After what I heard this morning, I would have got upset if you had not tried to do anything to help Raymond out.’
Karan smiled. ‘Where do we begin Kavya? Too much to do and too little time. I am a bit confused. Let’s think for a minute before we begin.’
‘Tea? Coffee?’ Jacqueline came in and asked.
‘Anything will do Jacqueline,’ Kavya responded. For the next five minutes he put his head down, didn’t speak to anyone and kept scribbling in his pad. Finally when he lifted his head, he looked at Kavya and said, ‘Okay Kavya, let’s start. Here’s where we begin. . .’
29
Devikulam
31st January 2012
Jayakumar and Krishna’s visit to the CBI office was a hush-hush affair. After a grilling three-hour interrogation, Krishna and Jaya were allowed to go with clear instructions that they were not to leave Devikulam. While being led to the interrogation room, both Jaya and Krishna had to surrender their phones. By the time they returned, there were a number of missed calls on Jaya’s phone. Jaya looked at them, but didn’t bother returnin
g any of those calls. Picking up his phone and other belongings, he walked straight into the waiting Toyota Innova.
‘Phone,’ he screamed, the moment he got into the car. The driver, not wanting to be at the receiving end of his anger, hurriedly pulled out an instrument from the glove compartment and handed it over to him. It was an old Nokia instrument. Jayakumar scrolled through the contact list and hurriedly dialled a number.
‘What the hell is this?’ he demanded, as the person on the other end picked up. ‘Why am I being treated like a criminal?’
Krishna looked at Jayakumar, phone glued to his ear, his face red in anger. He had never seen Jaya like this before. The guy at the other end was trying to say something which was muffled, so Krishna couldn’t understand.
‘What? Lie low? Why the hell should I lie low? Look Mahadevan, I’m warning you, if you don’t figure a way out to get these guys off our back, you know what I can do?’
The guy at the other end started offering some explanation that was clearly unacceptable to Jayakumar.
‘Mr Nair, I have been extremely accommodating. Everything that you had asked for has been given. I have conceded to all your demands and have patiently waited long enough.’ And then he paused, listening to the person at the other end. ‘Not my problem,’ Jaya yelled in response. ‘I know there are multiple people involved in seeing this through, but my patience is now running out. You release the purchase order for the trucks and I will back off from this agitation. The way I convinced people to back this protest, I will convince them to back off too. The way I bought the protest, I can buy peace too. But that will only happen if you keep your side of the bargain.’
Mahadevan’s reply apparently didn’t cut curry with Jaya. ‘I want this issue resolved in the next forty-eight hours Mr Nair and I want the CBI off my back. Remember, the country has spent three billion dollars—fifteen thousand crore on the nuclear plant. It will be unfortunate if that investment were to rot. It doesn’t take too much to get one person to kill himself at the gates of the nuclear plant every day till such time that the government calls off the project. There are enough people in this country willing to die, if someone promises their families two square meals a day. And these people are now with me.’
The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian) Page 18
