The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian)
Page 28
In about an hour, Kavya and Hemant were nearly through with what they were doing. ‘Nearly done Karan,’ said Hemant.
‘Thanks Hemant. There are two things left to be done.’ The other two in the room looked at each other. ‘Jacks!’ he said, snapping his fingers. ‘Jacks can help us with that.’
He walked out of the room and he saw Vikram there. ‘Karan?’ Vikram was surprised to see him there. ‘Yes Vikram. How are you?’
‘I’m good. What brings you here? You’re still with the Times?’
‘Yes yes. Very much so. Enjoying my stint there. People there atleast have a spine.’ He took a dig at Vikram. They didn’t get along when Karan was in GB2, but he didn’t have much time to carry on the banter.
‘Jacqueline. Need your help. Can you please come into the conference room for a minute?’ She followed Karan, leaving Vikram alone at her workstation. Vikram, finding himself alone at Jacqueline’s table started taking mental notes about things lying there. He always did that when he was around Indrani’s room. When he saw an old mobile bill of his lying on Jacqueline’s table, he picked it up and started going through it. When Jacqueline came back, he asked her, ‘What’s going on Jacqueline?’
‘Nothing. And will you please stop going through my things? It’s rude to do so without my permission.’ She had never liked him. ‘Indrani is slightly tied up now. She will only see you in an hour. Please be around. I’ll call you.’
‘Sure. I will be in my cabin.’ Vikram turned away, a strange look on his face. Jacqueline had always been nice to him, mainly because he was seen as Indrani’s pet boy. What had changed all of a sudden?
Francis Jobai arrived a little over an hour and a half from the time Jacqueline had called him. The slow traffic on the Eastern Express highway, particularly on the Sion-Matunga belt, had delayed him. He was ushered into Indrani’s cabin where he was briefed. After giving him the background, Indrani asked Jacqueline to call Karan and his team.
As he strode into Indrani’s room, Karan had a smile on his lips, and deep concern in his mind. In the heart of hearts, he was worried—worried about the manner in which things had changed abruptly.
‘Come on in, guys,’ Indrani smiled. It was a smile that hid the pain and the sorrow that she was feeling. Three of her officers had been killed over the past few days. And there was a cloud over one of her favourite officers in the bank. Francis Jobai was standing to her left, talking to someone on the phone.
‘Hi Karan, good to see you again, though not in the best of circumstances, I must say. And Indrani, they will be here in twenty minutes,’ said Francis, as soon as he hung up.
Indrani looked at Karan and Kavya. ‘The cops,’ she explained, ‘I have requested Francis to make sure that we have adequate security before we talk to anyone. He has requested them to be around, just in case we need help. On an informal basis.’
‘Thanks Indrani. I think, by the time we finish, we will surely need the cops to come in.’
‘Where’s Hemant?’
‘He’s checking on one last detail. He’ll be here in ten minutes.’
‘Okay. Vikram had come. I asked Jacqueline to ask him to wait, so that we complete our discussion before I confront him.’
‘That will not be required until later, Indrani.’
‘What? And why do you say that, Karan?’ Indrani asked, confused.
‘Let me call the person we need to speak to first.’ He stepped out of the room, walked up to Jacqueline, said something to her and then he walked back into the room.
‘Two minutes Indrani.’ Indrani looked at Francis, trying to make sense of what Karan was doing. There was pin-drop silence in the room. No one spoke. Indrani wanted all this to get over quickly. It was turning out to be one long nightmare for her.
Finally the silence was broken by a knock on the door of Indrani’s cabin. ‘Come in,’ Indrani called out. The door opened and two people walked in. One of them was Jacqueline.
43
Devikulam
Morning, 1st February 2012
After the Times Today debacle, Krishna Menon was a very distraught old man. All his efforts over the last ten years had come to naught. For someone who hadn’t ever taken a dishonest step in his life, this one wrong, albeit critical association with a powerful man had proved to be his undoing.
The call from Mumbai woke him up that morning. It was the third time in twelve hours that a telephone call had disturbed his fragile state of calm. The anger he felt from within had prevented him from sleeping peacefully. Jayakumar had turned out a miserable opportunist—a guy who rocked the boat and also gave out life jackets. Not only had Jayakumar taken him for a ride, he had compromised the position of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians residing in the vicinity of the TNPP. In a fit of anger, he had mentioned to the person calling from GB2 that he was withdrawing from the protest, but if someone had to go, it was Jayakumar. He was not going to compromise on that. If he did, it would be a disservice to the entire community of Devikulam. The community that had given him everything. His son, Arvind, who died a torturous death in the aftermath of Chernobyl, in Ukraine—hadn’t he promised him in his last days that he would dedicate his life to make sure that the people of Devikulam wouldn’t meet that fate? It was around the same time Devikulam was being considered as a possible site for an Indo-Russian collaboration for a nuclear plant. If he backed out now, what would happen to that promise made to his dying son?
He was tossing around in bed restlessly when the call had come. This time, unlike last night, the caller didn’t seem to be in a hurry.
Karan introduced himself and talked to him about not taking a decision in a hurry. Devikulam needed him. Karan also told him about the possible money-laundering angle. When he heard about the likelihood of CNRI being funded through an organization based in Vienna, which in all probability was a conduit for pumping in money by the American and German nuclear bodies, to stall the commissioning of TNPP, he was a bit surprised. Krishna Menon told Karan about the CBI interrogation in detail. When he told Karan about the discussion with the defence secretary about the arms deal with Israel, Karan was not shocked. Bhaskar had mentioned it to him the previous night. When Krishna Menon told him about the conversation with Dr Heldrich and the French nuclear scientist, matters became clear to him.
‘Jayakumar is a double agent. It is clear that he is working undercover for the Americans and Germans and maybe some others who do not want India to be a nuclear power, in their quest to stall the commissioning of the TNPP. I am sure they have multiple Jayakumars floating in the system to further their cause. Not only that, from what you are saying, and from what I have seen in the last twenty-four hours, Jayakumar is also working for the Israeli ammunition lobby, as a deal-maker. In the process, he is arm-twisting the people in the government who are on his payroll. He will succeed in one of the objectives. The government might succumb to the kickbacks and the pressure and end up buying from the Israelis. They might buy peace and save their three billion dollar investment. Or the government may procrastinate and delay the commissioning of the project, which suits the other nuclear powers. Either way, Jayakumar succeeds. And in the process, he will make his money.’
‘What a criminal mastermind!’
‘He is a criminal sir. He must be dealt with as a criminal.’ And Karan spoke to him at length, trying to talk Krishna Menon through the confusion and depression in his mind.
‘Thanks for the conversation friend. You have helped me see things more clearly.’
‘Have a good day sir. The TV anchor might not know the true story, and that’s why they would have succumbed to wrong information. Once they get to know the truth, they will back you sir. I know them very well. And that’s why I called back to tell you sir, that you must not back out. If you back out now, the anti-Indian forces will win. We would rather die losing than back out. It will be a shame on this nation if people like you are brow-beaten into submission. I will make sure my newspaper supports you.’
After this discussion, Krishna got up and walked to the washroom, where he splashed a few drops of water on his face. The call from Mumbai had rejuvenated his thoughts, his dreams, and had made his desire to fight even fiercer. By the time he walked out, Sulochana was also trying to get out of bed to make him some coffee.
‘It’s okay. Sleep for some more time. I will make the coffee for you today.’
‘What?’ She couldn’t even remember the last time Krishna had made coffee for her. Something was different. When she saw a changed Krishna, she began to wonder what was wrong. Or rather, what was right. Whatever it was, it had pepped up Krishna and made him happy.
‘I’m not going to give up. Jayakumar can do what he wants. I have the people supporting me. I will not give up. I will live my remaining life on my terms,’ said Krishna, when he saw her puzzled look and he poured a glass of water into the percolator and switched it on. A pleasant aroma of coffee filled the room as Krishna walked out through the connecting passage and opened the door and stepped out into the verandah. A new day had begun.
44
GB2, Mumbai
1st February 2012
Indrani stared at the two people who had walked into her room.
‘Tanuja!’ a shocked Indrani exclaimed as she turned and looked at Karan. To Jacqueline’s right, with a big smile on her face was Tanuja. When she saw the grim looks on everyone’s face, her smile vanished.
‘Is everything alright Indrani?’
Indrani was confused. She didn’t know what to say. ‘Karan, do you know what you are doing? You’d better be sure.’
‘I am Indrani.’
Indrani was extremely unhappy that Karan had brought Tanuja into the picture. ‘Hope you have a plausible explanation for this. It’s disgusting.’
‘What is this about Indrani? I’m a bit confused. Is this something to do with the story that the Times is doing on GB2?’
‘There is no story Tanuja,’ Indrani responded.
‘Then? What is Karan doing here?’
‘Dilip Singh Rajput,’ Karan began his story without waiting for Indrani to respond to Tanuja’s query. ‘Heard of him?’ he asked, eyes firmly riveted on Tanuja.
‘I think Dilip works in our Jaipur Branch,’ Tanuja casually responded.
‘Yes Tanuja. He does. In fact, he is the Branch Manager of the Jaipur branch.’
‘Okay?’
‘Yogesh Bhargav was paid three hundred thousand rupees for having referred Dilip’s CV to GB2 for hiring.’ When Karan made this statement, Indrani wondered what the connection was.
‘That’s normal. We pay sixteen per cent of CTC for all the hiring we do through recruitment consultants.’
‘That’s fair,’ and he looked at Indrani. ‘Only if. . .’
‘Only if?’ Tanuja enquired.
‘Only if the candidate was referred by a recruitment consultant.’
‘What do you mean?’ Tanuja was getting increasingly agitated.
‘23rd September 2011, 2.46 p.m., Dilip Singh Rajput sends you a mail enclosing his CV. Same day at 4.52p.m., the CV gets forwarded to Yogesh Bhargav, who resends the same CV to you on 24th September at 9.45 a.m., with his stamp on it. Dilip Singh Rajput becomes a Yogesh Bhargav referred candidate, overnight. The funny thing is that as per Dilip Singh Rajput’s confession this morning, he doesn’t even know who Yogesh Bhargav is and hasn’t even spoken to him once.’
‘Are you insinuating that we are a corrupt bunch of HR professionals?’ Tanuja took him head-on.
‘Don’t get me wrong Tanuja. I am not insinuating anything. In fact, I’m stating it outright.’
Tanuja looked at Indrani, anger flashing in her eyes. ‘Indrani we can’t have an outsider passing judgments on all of us in your presence. I am answerable to you—not to him.’
Indrani was silent. She wanted to hear the whole story. Tanuja had questioned Karan’s intent, but she had not denied whatever he had said. ‘Let’s hear him and then we will decide Tanuja. There is no smoke without fire.’ Indrani was sitting at her desk, elbows on the table and her chin propped up by her palms.
‘Of the fifty personnel files we asked for, Indrani, twenty-nine were hired in the last two years through Yogesh Bhargav. Between the three of us, we spoke to fourteen of them this morning. I was shocked to know that none of them had sent their résumés to Yogesh Bhargav or had ever spoken to him. All fourteen of them had sent their résumés to either Tanuja or Vikram directly. Each RM is in the salary range of around ten lakh per annum, which means that we have paid around a lakh and half to recruit each of these guys. In the twenty minute check that we have done, it comes out that Yogesh Bhargav has been paid over twenty-one lakh extra for work that he’s never done.’
‘This is utter nonsense. You can’t corner me like this. I have no means of validating anything that you are saying. If I have the data, I can respond. My conscience is clear.’ It was irking Tanuja that Indrani was quiet and not saying a word. ‘I can go down and get the details right away in case you need it Indrani.’
‘I am fine as of now. I suggest you wait. And Karan. . .this was not in the remit. What is the relevance of Yogesh Bhargav in what we were trying to do?’
‘Indrani I was just trying to set the context. It only suggests that over the years, lakhs of rupees could have been siphoned off from the bank under the guise of vendor payments. It shows the mindset of the people in your management team.’
‘Point made. Move on Karan. I’m getting impatient. And don’t pass value judgments about people in the team. One bad apple does not mean the entire basket is rotten.’
‘Sure Indrani. I mentioned this to you earlier, but I will bring it up again. For the sake of Francis and our guest here, Tanuja,’ he said sarcastically, ‘when we examined all the accounts opened in the last year, we saw that in sixty-eight of these accounts, money came in from overseas and was withdrawn in cash in almost immediately. These transactions, particularly repeated instances of such transactions, confirms the presence of money laundering of some kind.’
‘Hmm. . .I am aware of that.’
‘All these accounts have been opened by a group of thirteen relationship managers. All these RMs have been hired with Vikram’s reference. There are mails from Vikram to Tanuja, which are on file which confirm Vikram’s comfort with the candidate and his approval to hire them. In all these mails he explicitly states that he knows the candidate, the reference checks have been done by him and he would like the candidate to be hired as a RM in a particular branch.’
‘Shouldn’t you be having this discussion with Vikram then?’ Tanuja seemed quite hurt by the accusations.
‘Yes. We can. Let’s call him in.’ He opened the door to Indrani’s cabin, stretched his neck and called out, ‘Jacqueline, can you please get Vikram?’
‘Sure.’
‘And also please ask Hemant how long he’ll be.’
In no time Vikram was in the cabin. Karan quickly handed him a list of thirteen RMs.
‘Do you know any of these RMs?’
Vikram looked at the names. He smiled as he saw Zinaida Gomes’ name there. ‘Yes. I know some of them. Not all. Why?’
‘If you don’t know all of them, how have you referred them for hiring, saying that you know them personally and are convinced of their capabilities?’
‘Rubbish.’ Vikram defended himself strongly. ‘In fact, I don’t even get involved in that process. And I haven’t recommended any of these for hiring. All of them have been hired following proper procedure.’
‘What’s this then?’ Karan asked, handing him a piece of paper. ‘As per this mail, you have recommended all of these RMs and have stated that you know them well. This has also been treated by HR as a tacit approval to waive off mandatory verifications.’
Vikram perused the mail. He had a surprised look on his face. ‘I need to check, because I don�
��t recollect having sent this mail.’ He looked at the piece of paper again. It was a mail from Tanuja to one of her direct reports, forwarding Vikram Bahl’s mail recommending the candidate. For a minute he was confused. Did it have anything to do with the deal with Yogesh Bhargav that he and Tanuja had? He didn’t know what to say and what not to. ‘Can I check and get back to you?’
‘See? It’s not my doing. Indrani, you unnecessarily insulted me in front of an outsider. If I don’t take it up with the region, it will only be because of our relationship and the respect that I have for you,’ Tanuja chimed in, sounding indignant.
‘We’ll see who takes it up with whom.’ The door flew open and Hemant walked in. ‘Before you go to the regional office and complain, just let us know why you hired these thirteen guys in the bank.’
‘Hemant you were not here when we discussed this issue. Vikram is going to check and get back to Indrani.’
‘That may not be necessary,’ Hemant barked. He seldom got upset, but when he did, no one could stand in front of him.
‘Why? May I ask?’ Tanuja mocked with a drawl.
‘Because, Tanuja, while those mails are on record, Vikram never sent them to you.’
‘What do you mean?’ Her voice was shaky now. Hemant observed that her phone was being passed on from one hand to the other and back again. . .a sure sign of nervousness. Time to move in for the kill, he thought.
‘You doctored those mails. You modified some other mails from Vikram and made them look like Vikram’s recommendations and forwarded them to your team to be printed out and included in the personnel file. You knew that no one from your team would dare to get back to Vikram on any of those candidates, knowing the two of you were close.’
Tanuja was indignant. ‘Are you out of your mind Hemant? Do you even know what you are saying?’
‘Yes madam, maybe while doing this, you forgot that there is a permanent imprint—a shadow copy—of every mail on the company server. A quick check run by IT confirmed that Vikram did not send those mails to you. We checked all thirteen cases for a match on time, date and content. And Tanuja, I am happy to confirm that these mails are fabricated. They just confirmed a minute ago.’ Karan had an evil grin on his face when Hemant said this, a grin which Tanuja hated. She had begun to despise him. ‘Hemant does this for a living. It took him all of fifteen minutes to figure out that these mails were fabricated. He was actually on a call with IT which is why he didn’t come in with me and Kavya,’ Karan looked at Indrani and offered an explanation.