Mayhem of the Miserables!

The Secular Robber!

There was this Dr. Peria Gunaseelan (roughly translated, it would mean a ‘Great Person of Good Virtues’, at least that would have been the intent of his parents when they named him so), an Ex-NRI (a former Non Resident Indian, who had been out of India for a period of six months or more and stopped paying income tax on his overseas income, to the Indian authorities), who had returned some decades back – to rescue India from its myriad miseries – via his innumerable ventures! His detractors, who were a dozen a dime, here and there and everywhere, conversely, whispered that he was, in fact, booted out of his adapted Middle Eastern Land of decades, after his completion of a prison term, for some offence – which hadn’t attracted ‘cutting off of his limbs’ as a punishment – to the chagrin of those adversaries; the veracity of that report, however, I wouldn’t know, yet. And also, I never could ascertain what Degree he had or whether he was a ‘doctor’ with medical training or a Ph.D. and if so, in which specialization and from which University – India or abroad.

The Mysterious Disappearance!

One not so fine, evening the ‘doctor’ had just disappeared and couldn’t be traced by his family members. His wife of forty five years, instinctively, knew something was amiss, when he wouldn’t return home by 10 PM, as was his practice and also wouldn’t lift her calls. After trying, vainly, to speak with him for a couple of hours, she, along with Thangam and Usha with a couple of friendly neighbors, went to the office to find that he was no where to be seen, while his briefcase was lying there, intact with the lights on. Usha, hurriedly, browsed the office telephone book to find the telephone number of Mrs. Iyengar and called her home, enquiring her boss’s whereabouts. She told that she had left the office at 9.00 PM, to catch her last bus to Besant Nagar and that he was in good shape and spirits when she left.

Arrested and Out-on-Bail!

Inspector General, Mr. Avinash Gaikwad, the Director (Special Investigations) of a northern state instituted a task force under Inspector Bhimsen Chaturvedi, comprising Assistant Sub-Inspectors, Mr. Ibrehim Khan & Ms. Jhansi Mehra and Constables Mr. Sarkar Singh, Mr. Vivek Dwivedi, Mr. Vishnu Yadav & Head Constable, Mrs. Rani Patel and dispatched them to Bengaluru after his ensuring full cooperation from the local police – who were more than willing to extend full cooperation to any outside police as they themselves were powerless against the powerful political contacts, the ‘doctor’ enjoyed there.. They camped at an inexpensive and non-descript lodge, occupying three rooms, near the office of the ‘doctor’ and began monitoring his activities, in plain cloths – a few keeping watch on the office, some the printing press and one or two tailing him from the office to locate his rout to residence. Mrs. Rani Patel went into the office posing as an aspiring Degree buyer and started bargaining for a foreign professional degree, which conversations – involving one Education Counselor, Thangam and later the ‘doctor’ himself – were all taped by her and her feigned brother Mr. Ibrehim Khan. They promised to return the next day with the advance payment, as demanded by the ‘doctor’ and her passport photographs.

The same night the task force in the presence of the local help whisked away both the ‘doctor’ and Thangam, on their way to home and kept them in a cell of a police station near Bengaluru city railway station. The next morning, the father and the junior duo, in handcuffs, were boarded on to an express train leaving for Vihar a major town in one of those Hindi states.