The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian) (25 page)

‘Oh Tanuja. How are you? Just the regular shit. Work. We’re doing a lead story on GB2 and we wanted to spend a day with Indrani to write about her. I’m just heading out because there’s an emergency at office. Will be back in an hour or so.’

‘Once you are done with that, come down to my room for coffee. Let’s catch up. It’s been a while.’

‘I’m not sure about today but I’ll definitely catch you tomorrow. Need to talk to you about Indrani’s style of functioning. How is she as a leader? It will be helpful in the story we are writing about GB2.’

‘Any time. Just buzz me. You have my mobile number.’ Tanuja said, before she got off on her floor. Karan nodded as the lift door closed behind her.

31

Colaba, Mumbai

Forenoon, 31
^st
January 2012

Karan flagged a passing taxi and headed towards Colaba. When he reached the Gateway of India, he passed a fifty-rupee note to the taxi driver and got off. Quite a steep payment for a short distance, but he didn’t have time to stop and negotiate or even wait for the cab driver to return the change.

The address of Asia Logistics as mentioned in the AOF was of a location behind the Taj Mahal Hotel. Swiftly, and with long strides he walked past the Gateway of India on his left, and reached the by-lanes behind the Taj. He was looking for a building called Connoisseur. It didn’t take him much time to locate it. A run down building, it housed small and medium sized offices. Most of the businesses there were of freight agents. Walking in, he reached the lift lobby. There were three creaky old lifts which ferried passengers up and down. Displayed on a large wall in the lift lobby, on the right of the three lifts, were the nameplates of all the companies housed there. Karan stood there, hunting for the name. . .and there it was. . .ninth floor. . .Asia Logistics Private Limited, Office No. 906. The address matched the one he had on the Account Opening Form.
So far so good,
thought Karan.

A silent prayer escaped his lips as he stepped into the dilapidated lift hoping that it would safely take him to the 9th floor. Thankfully, God heard his prayer. Moving aside to allow an old lady to pass through, he followed her out of the lift and surveyed the exterior to figure out where the office of Asia Logistics was. He nearly tripped on a tile laminate which had come loose. Thankfully he had the wall to hold on to for support and didn’t fall, although the papers in his hand spilled on to the floor. He hurriedly picked them up. There was no time to lose.

He walked a few steps. A hastily stuck, partly torn paper on the wall announced the fact that the corridor ahead was home to offices 906 to 910. He marched on. Another fifteen metres and he was in front of a glass door. On it was inscribed in large letters, ‘Global Telesys’. He looked towards his left, opposite the main door of Global Telesys. He was staring at a freshly painted wall. He didn’t have time to wonder what benefit the fresh coat of paint would provide if the surroundings were so shabby.

He pushed the glass door open and walked in. A cute-looking girl wearing a flimsy, revealing top with a deep, never-ending neckline sat at the reception desk. Karan followed the neckline down till he reached the point where it dipped into her cleavage. He let out a sigh and looked up.

‘Can I help you?’ the girl said, smiling at him.

‘Hello. I am looking for this address,’ and he handed her a slip of paper with the address of Asia Logistics.

The receptionist looked at the address and read it out loud, ‘906, Connoisseur, Taj Lane, Colaba. You want to know where to find this place?’

‘Yes.’

‘You are standing there.’

‘This is 906?’

‘Yes sir, who do you want to meet?’

‘But the sign says Global Telesys.’

‘Yes sir. That’s the name of our company.’

‘You mean office number 906 is the address of Global Telesys? Is there any other wing in this building? A-Wing? B-Wing?’

‘No sir. This is the only building and you are standing in office 906 which is Global Telesys.’ The irritation in her voice was evident. She didn’t like being asked the same question repeatedly.

‘But the name of the company I have is Asia Logistics.’ There was panic in Karan’s voice.

‘Oh Asia Logistics. Why didn’t you say that earlier? They were here before us.’

Karan suddenly felt a bit relieved. So Asia Logistics was operating from there. The address on the account opening form was correct. It was not a fraudulent account. Maybe they were shifting and that’s why they had given the HOLD instruction.

‘Oh thanks ma’am. Any idea where they have moved? By the way, the board at the entrance of the building still shows 906 as the office of Asia Logistics.’

‘They have moved to the sixth floor,’ she said, pointing downwards.

‘In the same building?’

‘Yeah. And we have been asking the building administration to change the name plates. . .but they are far too lazy to do it.’

‘Oh no issues. Even reminders don’t work?’ Karan said playfully.

‘Nothing works on these guys. In fact, we’ve had it easy; we’ve been hounding them for only the past three months. These guys, Asia Logistics, have been chasing them for over eight months now.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yup. Ever since they vacated this office and moved downstairs.’

‘Oh. Hope it gets changed soon then. I am sure there are many like me who come up asking for the wrong office. Thanks anyway.’ Karan opened the door but the moment he stepped out, it struck him.
Eight months?
He froze.
Did the receptionist say eight months?
He looked at the documents in his hand. The account had been opened approximately three months back. Retracing his steps, he walked back into the office of Global Telesys.

‘Did you say eight months?’

‘Pardon me?’

‘You said Asia Logistics moved out of this office eight months ago.’

‘Yes they did.’

‘And you moved in around three months ago?’

‘That’s correct.’

‘Was this office occupied in the intervening five months?’

‘No it was not occupied. It was put up for rent, but no one had taken it up. It was vacant, to the best of my knowledge.’

‘Thanks. Sorry for bothering you.’ And he rushed to the 6th floor. He wanted to meet the guys at Asia Logistics. Something was amiss. He ran down three floors, at times skipping multiple steps and finally landed at the door of Asia Logistics.

It was a small office with twenty-odd employees. Even though the employees were few, they were very well organized. Everyone had nametags and ID cards, the entry to the main area was controlled with access cards, and there was even neat seating provided for visitors. All in all, it seemed like a good organization.

The lady at the reception was a thin girl who looked as though she might be from south-India but sported a nametag that read ‘Misha Bose’. Karan wondered how the name and appearance were completely divergent. But it was not the time for that discussion. He walked up to her and said, ‘Misha, I need to see the person in-charge here.’

‘What’s this regarding?’

‘I am here to investigate a fraud.’ Typically all front-office personnel change their approach the moment the word fraud is dropped upon them. They suddenly become a lot more helpful, and Misha was no exception. She went in and when she returned she had a fat, pot-bellied, nerdy-looking guy with her. She pointed towards Karan and the nerdy guy approached him. He looked at Karan through his thick glasses and asked him, ‘Yes, what can I do for you?’

‘Sir my name is Karan Panjabi and I am here on behalf of GB2. Are you the in-charge here sir?’

‘I am Tripat Gill, the branch in-charge. Tell me.’

‘Mr Gill, I want you to confirm if these Account Opening Forms have been filled and signed by your directors.’ And he handed over the complete set of forms to the nerd.

Tripat Gill studied the forms for precisely ten seconds and handed them back.

‘No.’

‘No?’

‘Hmm. . .no. . . We don’t have a director named Asad Ansari.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘One hundred per cent.’ Tripat was supremely confident about his claim.

‘Maybe if you see their photographs, you might recollect something.’ And he opened the page which had the photographs and turned the papers towards the branch in charge.

‘Oh this guy!’ Tripat Gill was shocked when he saw the photo. He looked at Misha, ‘See what this guy has done? Didn’t I tell you the day I first saw him, that he is a fraud?’ Misha walked up to them to check out the photograph. It seemed to shock her too.

‘What happened? You know him?’ Karan queried.

‘Yes. He was my ex-boyfriend. He used to come to the ninth floor office quite often. In fact, when we moved to the sixth floor, he was considering taking the ninth floor office for some business of his, but that never worked out.’

‘Hmm. . .do you know where he lives?’

‘No. I haven’t seen him in the last three months. Even when I was dating him, he never took me to his house.’

Karan spoke to them for a few minutes more and rushed back to Ground Zero—the conference room adjacent to Indrani’s office.

‘Bastard, fraudulent account. The company exists, but the guys who opened the account have opened it without the knowledge of the actual company. The real Asia Logistics does not even know that there exists an account in their name in GB2.’ He gave Kavya a run-down of all that he had seen and heard.

‘Which means the money which is coming in is being used for clandestine purposes. It’s a clear case of money laundering,’ said Kavya. ‘But Karan, there is a visit report of a RM on file. How did the RM miss it?’

‘Let’s ask her.’

‘Wait, I don’t think that will be necessary.’ And she quickly glanced through the report. ‘She visited the site early in the morning. And if one links it up with what you are saying, Zinaida went there before Global Telesys moved in. If the name plates in the lobby were there even today, they would surely have been there when she would have visited the office. She would have fallen for it. If you see her report, she has mentioned that no employees were seen because it was so early in the morning. The visit was stage-managed for her. GB2 got taken in by the amount of money involved and took the bait.’

‘Hmm. . .that can be the only explanation. So it looks like we are on the right track. We would not have figured this out hadn’t you noticed that Asia Logistics has a HOLD instruction. Don’t know how I missed it.’

‘It’s okay boss. You have been out of touch with banking for a long time now.’ And Kavya winked at him.

‘That reminds me, where you able to get the details of all those accounts wherein a large quantum of money has come into the account and has been withdrawn in the form of cash within a few days? Can I see the list Kavya?’

‘Yes yes. I got that Karan. There are sixty-eight such accounts across the country. In the last three months, about two hundred crore rupees have come in from overseas into these accounts and almost everything has been withdrawn in cash. In fact twenty-one of these sixty-eight accounts have already been closed—and that too within three to four months of their being opened.’

‘Hmm. . .that means that these accounts were possibly set up with the objective of getting tainted money from overseas and once the money was siphoned out, these accounts were closed.’

‘And you know what. While you were away, I was struggling to run this query. So I asked Amit how to run it.’

‘Who Amit?’

‘Works in the data mining team?’

‘You asked him for help? Didn’t we tell Indrani that we wouldn’t?’

‘Yes. But I had to get the job done. And guess what, he told me that two days back he had run this query and given the same data to Raymond.’

‘Shit. You shouldn’t have told him. Now he will know.’

‘Don’t worry, he’s going out of town tonight and will be back next week. We will be done by then.’

‘Okay cool. Hope he doesn’t open his mouth.’ He walked to the corner of the room. Raising his right hand, he twisted the venetian blinds and allowed light to filter into the boardroom. Standing there, he stared out blankly at the road below and the parked cars on the sides. The traffic, the crowd, the hawkers. . .nothing made an impact on him. ‘If Asia Logistics was fraudulently set up, it’s understandable. Nothing earth-shattering about it. The banking system is full of such benami accounts. Despite the banks trying to weed them out, they do exist. What baffles me Kavya, is why were all these guys killed? Why was Raymond killed? Why was Harshita killed? If the bank had been vigilant, they could also have found out that Asia Logistics was a bad account. But could that have stopped the murders?’

‘Is it possible that they were killed because they found out?’

‘Which means we’re next in line,’ he winked at Kavya. ‘If we don’t see each other tomorrow, remember baby that I love you.’

‘Very funny.’

32

Mumbai

Afternoon, 31
^st
January 2012

Raymond’s funeral was a very muted affair. Not many people attended. From GB2, Tanuja, Vikram, Juliana and a few others who were dutifully obliged to attend, were present. Indrani didn’t attend this funeral too. For once, it was not her obsession with self-promotion that held her back. She didn’t want to leave Karan and Kavya behind, managing things alone.

The post-mortem report had estimated the time of death at around 2.00 a.m. It also put the reason for Raymond’s death as one caused due to strangulation and the resultant cut-off of oxygen supply to the brain. There was no other injury, external or internal, which showed any fight or violence of any kind. No one was interested in pursuing the case. Raymond’s wife had given up on him, his parents were incapacitated and old, and in no position to take on anyone, GB2 was an organization that did not want to involve itself in any controversy and as far as friends are concerned, Raymond didn’t have many. Most importantly, the suicide note found on Raymond made it an open and shut case.