The Incredible Banker (26 page)

In Karan, he saw a rising star; someone who had full faith in his convictions and had the potential to deliver the goods when it mattered the most. This story had even raised Andy's own stakes within the group.

That evening Karan, Bhaskar and Andy were at Indigo in Colaba where they celebrated the expose over a drink. It was a nice resto-bar in the lane next to Cafe Leopold. Andy laid out the newspaper on the table in front of them.

'Guys, many, many years from now, when you will be old and taking care of your grandchildren, you will reminisce this day and the thought of what's happened today will give you extreme joy. It will be one of the most successful wins of your career. Mark my words! It can't get better than this. Foreign banks, government, Naxalites, money laundering and threats,' Andy spoke.

"Threats?' both Karan and Bhaskar called out in unison.

'Haha...yes. Thakurta came to meet me this afternoon. He doesn't want us to steal his thunder. Wanted us to go slow,' Andy told them.

'What did you say?' Karan asked him.

'It doesn't make sense to be belligerent, guys. I called up our management to see what support we have. Never enter into a battle without any cover. If you are destined to lose, don't ever try to battle. Wait for an opportunity where you are sure to win.' Andy said philosophically.

'That's all fine but what did you say?' Karan was getting impatient with the lecture.

'I told him to mind his own business. We will do our job the way our readers want.'

'He bought into it?' Karan asked.

'No, he didn't, but you can't fuck around with the media. Can you?' Andy smiled as he said this. And then he looked at the front page of
The Times of India
. He looked at the two pictures on the front page. One was of Francis D'Silva released by the CBI and the other of Francis D'Silvas as his passport copy picked out from the document given to GB2 while applying for a credit card. 'Whoever you are, Francis, you will be kept alive by the media for long.' And then he looked at the bar where a couple of cute-looking ladies were ordering their drink and waved out to the barman. Within minutes their drinks arrived and they celebrated their famous exposé.

R
ONALD had not expected a summons from the RBI so soon.

The newspapers had speculated about this mess-up only a day back. And the governor of the RBI had already served him a notice. Everyone knew that RBI had taken a very categorical stand on KYC documents and account holder details, but he didn't expect them to give him a show cause notice, which seemed more like a threat. And the accusation levied on them – waging a war against the nation -was shocking. At the least he should have been given an opportunity to defend the bank before the harsh notice was issued. The problem with these notices was that they normally made it to the records. And long after the issues died down and problems fixed, they still remained on record and came back to haunt at the most inappropriate of times. Ronald was worried about this impact, too.

But there was no point worrying about it because it was a fait accompli. RBI had issued a warning letter and sought answers from GB2. He had to now figure out how to handle this issue.

Bhisham, Inder and their respective teams along with Mansi, Ramneek and a few others were waiting for Ronald as he came back from the RBI.

Thankfully the Francis issue was relegated to the third page on
The Times of India
that day. It was largely because of an unfortunate mishap. The speeding Sealdah-bound Uttar Banga express had rammed into the rear of a stationary Bhagalpur-Ranchi-Vananchal express, at Sainthia railway station in Birbhum in West Bengal early Wednesday morning. Over 65 people were killed in this accident. The railway minister had started making noises about the possible causes of the accident. Naxal activism was also being suspected as one of the possiblities. Even the dumbest of souls would know that this was because of a signalling error rather than the Naxals.

Ronald showed the letter from RBI to Saurabh. "This is why I was summoned by the Governor,' he said looking at the others. 'So what does our investigation show?'

Bhalla walked in. He was a little late for the meeting and apologised.

'Bhalla, Anything new?' asked Ronald, turning his attention towards him.

'Ronald, without going into the details, everything that the newspaper says is true. Symbiotics is a fraud company. It does not exist any more. We have seen small companies like these being set up fraudulently in the past but have never seen such a large-scale organised fraud. We got misled by the presence of the organisation in the virtual world, sexy websites, visits by senior management and their faςade of a threat of losing the deal to Citibank. In fact we have a relationship with a company called Symbiotic Systems in the UK. At that point in time, we were misled into believing that this company was a sister concern of the British company. Having said that, we have got all the approvals from our credit folks. Bhisham has approved it himself. In fact he put in some additional checks as well just to be sure.' He then looked at Bhisham and said, 'Bhisham, would you want to add something?'

Bhisham was cornered. He couldn't say anything but accept that they had approved this transaction. 'Yes but...,' he was about to say something when Bhalla cut him short.

'Ronald, in fact only after receiving the written approval from credit did we close the deal with Symbiotic. Even they took their time in considering the proposal and granting their stamp of approval.'

The blame game had begun and Bhalla had won round one. Now even if Bhisham spent hours talking to Ronald to convince him that he was being framed, Ronald wouldn't believe him. He was, in a matter of minutes, a condemned man.

Back in the offices of TO I, the mood was remarkably different than the boardroom of GB2. The TOI team was upbeat. They had clearly stolen the lead over most of the other newspapers. The public loved it. Who wouldn't ? Who doesn't want to see the big and mighty take a tumble in the battle against the Naxals?

Karan had agreed with Andy that the article for Friday would be on the frauds in the mortgage business and how it was possible to launder money by taking loans from banks. It was fast becoming Karan's week at the newspaper. He had just got out of a meeting with Andy and was casually flirting with his secretary when the phone on her table rang. She picked up the phone.

'Yeah, he is here. Do you want to speak to him?' she asked the caller.

'You want me to tell him this...oh, ok...I will let him know. He will call you. Ok, take care,' and she put the phone down. Karan had no idea what the caller was saying.

'There is someone at the reception for you, love,' she told Karan.

'Who would it be? At this hour?' He looked at his watch. It was past six in the evening. He hadn't even completed the article he had to write.

'Dunno,' She shrugged her shoulders. 'Apparently, he wouldn't even tell the receptionist his name. He is insisting that he will only see you and no one else.'

'Ok. Can you please check with the reception if he could wait for 30 minutes? I will just complete and send the article for tomorrow's edition and then meet him.'

'I will, but maybe you would just want to see who it is. Maybe it is urgent,' she said

'Babes, nothing is more important than this money laundering Naxalite case. Nothing...,' He smiled at her. 'Will you please let the guys at the reception know that I will be down there in thirty minutes?'

'As you say.' She called the reception. 'Karan will be down in thirty minutes. He is in a meeting. Will you please ask the gentleman to wait?'

Karan rushed to his desk. He had to complete and send the article to the editing desk in the next thirty minutes. Even though he was already behind deadline, the newspaper was very tolerant towards him since he was leading the Naxal story. He opened the top drawer and pulled out his cellphone. He had left it there for charging. There were fourteen missed calls of which twelve were from the some unknown number. However, If someone had tried to call him twelve times in ten minutes, it had to be important. He dialed the number. It was picked up in the first ring.

'Mr Panjabi?' the receiver of the call asked Karan.

'Yes, who is this?'

'Hi, I am Jinesh Shah. I am waiting for you at your reception.'

'Oh, it's you. Sorry, I didn't recognise you. Have we met earlier?' Karan asked him.

'No, we haven't. I need to see you for five minutes.'

'Mr. Shah, thanks for coming all the way. But I am slightly busy. Can we meet tomorrow morning?' Though he had committed earlier that he would be down in thirty minutes, he was now trying to wriggle out of the meeting.

'Mr Panjabi, what I have might be of interest to you. I am not too confident of going to the CBI, so I came to you. I would rather have the press know before the CBI. I am safe that way.'

'What are you talking about?' Karan seemed interested now.

' You printed those two pictures in the newspaper this morning. I might be able to give you some insights into the guy.'

'What?'

'Yes, I have met this gentleman.'

'When? Where? Who is he? How do you know him?'

When Karan rattled off so many questions, Jinesh slightly clamped up. 'Look. I can't talk on the phone. I am at your reception and there are too many people around. Can we meet in person? I have left my coffee shop to my employees and come here to see you. I also need to head back.'

'I will be there in five minutes.' Karan slammed the phone down, logged into his PC and quickly skimmed through the article he had written. He didn't waste time in rereading the entire article. He pressed send' and off it went. And as promised, within 5 minutes he was at the reception.

He looked around. There were about nine people sitting at the reception. He couldn't make out who had come to see him. No one seemed like the guys who would he would normally interact with. Not that profile. From the corner of his eyes he looked at the receptionist. She tilted her head, moved her eyes to someone sitting right in front of him. Though Karan didn't read her signal well, he had narrowed down the search to three of the nine people. He looked at all of them and called out.

'Jinesh?' it was less of a call out and more of a question.

The most innocuous looking man stood up. 'Mr Panjabi...,' he said.

'Yes, please call me Karan. Good to see you, Mr Shah.' He shook his hand. 'Let's go inside.' He guided him towards a conference room. Jinesh looked very shaken and worried. The creases on his forehead made him look at least a few years older than his age. He kept looking over his shoulder as if he was being followed. Something had shaken him up and it was showing on his face. It didn't take Karan much to figure this out and he was sensitive to Jinesh as he led him into the conference room at the far end of the corridor from the reception.

'Please come in', he said as he opened the door of the small room. 'Please be comfortable.' And he gave him a big smile that instantly put Jinesh at ease. 'It's safe in here.'

Karan sat away from the door and made Jinesh sit with his back facing the door. From that position Jinesh could not see the people walking through the corridor and that helped to add to his illusion of security.

'Mr Shah, please feel comfortable. No one can reach here without our permission. No one can even listen in to our conversation,' Karan tried to assure him

'Hmm...I hope you will not call the police.' Jinesh seemed apprehensive.

'Not right now, for sure, because I do not know anything.'

'Thanks for meeting me at such a short notice.'

'It's ok, Mr Shah. So what do you do these days ? You said you run a restaurant. Right?'

'Not a restaurant, I run the franchise of Costa Coffee in Juhu.'

"The one near Amitabh's bungalow?' Karan asked.

'Yes, yes, that's the one.'

'Hmm...it's a new one. I have been there a couple of times.'

'Yes, that's the story which I wanted to tell you.'

'Yes, sir, I am waiting.'

'About two years back I used to run a completely different business. I ran an Internet café. It was a flourishing business. I had about 20 computers and almost the entire student community in and around Juhu came to me. Mine was a reasonably well-known Internet café but everything changed one day.'

Karan had seen that internet café earlier. It was actually a rundown, sleazy internet café, but just as is the case with children where everyone feels that their children are the best, even in business everyone feels that his shop is the best and Jinesh was no different.

'What had happened?' Karan wanted to know

"There was a man who came to me one day in March 2008. I had people around me and was slightly busy. He said he wanted to use my internet café. I was quite happy to let him in. Then he told me that he wanted to use it on a day when there would be no one in the café. I told him that there was not a moment during the day when all the terminals were free.'

'This was in March 2008?'

'Yes.'

'Do you mind if I take notes ?' Karan asked.

'Not at all.But please don't record our conversation. It scares me,' Jinesh requested him

'Sure. Sure.... Go ahead.'

'When I told him that there wouldn't be a moment during the day when all the terminals will be free, he went away. Probably he went looking for other places. Before leaving he called someone to take directions to other Internet cafes in the area.'

'Hmm...'

'When he didn't find any such internet café which would be free all through the day, he came back to me.'

'When did he come back?'

'Within the next two or three days.'

'Why did he come back to you only?'

'Maybe he went to the others too. But I would like to believe that he came to me because mine was the only one which had a small private enclosure.'

'ok.'

"This time he came with an offer.'

'An offer?' Karan raised his eyebrows.

'Yes. He asked me if I would shut down the internet café for a day. I was surprised and asked him why he would want me to shut down my café for a whole day. It would mean a loss of revenue for me.'

'Strange.'

'That's when he made a deal. He said he would pay me the double of the revenue lost during the day. Which meant that he would pay me double charges for the twenty internet terminals. It was an offer I could not resist. Suspecting that he would not pay later, I asked for advance which he agreed to.'

'How much was that ? This would have meant over 10,000 rupees for the day, right?' Karan guessed.

'Hmm...more than that. And it was difficult for me to refuse. See, I make that amount over a week, sometimes even longer. My café used to normally run at 40 per cent occupancy and he was paying me double the charges for all terminals that day.'

'Understood.' 'He came back the next day. He brought his laptop and other equipment, which were small in size and fitted into a small bag. They looked like routers, scramblers and some hi-tech stuff. He said that he was working on a top-secret deal that couldn't be disclosed. He looked polished and smart. Spoke good English. So I was taken in and agreed to his condition of not recording his entry in my register. The rules required me to maintain a register marking everyone's entry and exit and also to take ID proof from clients who use the internet café.'

'Hmm...then?'

'He started his work at around 4 in the afternoon. He connected his own laptop. I think it was a brand new one. He kept working at it for a long time. I went in a couple of times, but every time he shooed me away. He didn't even eat or drink. He took his stuff inside with him and shut himself off from everyone.'

My deal with him was till 10 p.m. He expected his work to get over by then but unfortunately it didn't. The connection was far too slower than what he thought it would be.'

'Did you ask him to leave?' Karan was getting impatient. He wanted to know the core issue. He was wondering what was it that Jinesh was trying to tell him. But he didn't want to cut his flow. It's just that he wished he knew the end before he saw the complete movie.