A SINISTER MOVE..............

P. Krishnamoorthy

It was a strange and scary sensation to wait indefinitely for a phone call at that late night for Deepak Chopra. Outside it was just drizzling, a preamble before a heavy downpour to make that night unusually more sensational. In his anxiety he was looking at his cell phone. After the death of Deepak’s wife Sruthi Devi in cancer, his sincere cook Pande was taking care of him. Since it was getting late, Pande came to his master to inform him of his leaving for the day with a ‘Goodnight”. At that time the expected call came through. With a daunted feeling, Deepak responded to the call. It was an unnumbered call with only a very brief message.  Deepak hurriedly scribbled the details of the message on a piece of paper. Pande witnessed Deepak responding to the call and when he finished, he informed him of his leaving. After he left, to be wary not to leave any trace of the call, Deepak destroyed the cell phone through the toilet flush. Following this, Deepak, in a sulky mood, walked into one of the five bedrooms of his villa. He was tormented with a strange feeling and   was forced to give permanent relief from his depression.  Mentally he had gone through turmoil wherein he was unable to find a solution to the clash of his controversial interests. He opened one of the safe cabinets, picked up a loaded pistol and pointed it towards his right side of the temple and triggered it. Deepak’s end came to relieve him from his depression. When Pande came back to work the next morning, a lot of speculation had gone wildfire in the media. Shocked with the horror scene of his master’s end, he called up Deepak’s only son, Aravind Chopra abroad, and informed him of his father’s demise. Aravind got stunned and shaken on hearing the news. He informed Pande of his arrival on the next flight. 

Deepak Chopra was a successful businessman and an uncrowned king in transportation industry for nearly two decades. He developed very good connections with the Defense Ministry of the government in moving their various military equipment from place to place, that paved the way to become their registered contractor. He was in their good books and enjoyed a better reputation with the various bosses in the ministry.  Since he had a very good fleet of vehicles, his complying with their requirements even at short notice was promptly handled by him.   He was also fortunate to have very sincere and hard-working staff to handle such assignments.

In the previous week, the defense ministry wanted him to handle an important incoming classified cargo from an unknown source. While he was getting the shipment details arriving in a container, he was curious to know the contents of the container for expeditious clearance. With his contacts, Deepak was able to know the contents of defense equipment like machine guns, missiles etc. intended for military establishment in Pune.  From Mumbai port, the container had to be transported by road to Pune. By the time the classified cargo was cleared by customs, it was very late evening. The Mumbai-Pune highway was closed for traffic in the late hours for construction work involving girders for a bridge. As the express highway had restrictions in allowing vehicles with trailers, the alternate routes for heavy vehicles were experiencing traffic jam. Hence the experienced driver of the container vehicle used very narrow side routes. While doing so, it was already dark. Suddenly a group of armed masked men, who were hiding in the bushes, came out and hijacked it with the container.  They appeared to be from a different country as they conversed in different lingo.

In the morning headlines news, the main topic was the hijacking of a defense classified cargo container by a hostile country. Immediately the concerned transporter, Deepak Chopra, was called in for interrogation by the defense department. They accused him of being responsible for the lapse as the contents of the container were sensitive cargo and the hostile country could get all the details of it only through the transport company. The transporter had also helped the hijackers to do a clandestine job with the details of the route of the container etc.   Deepak instantly refused the charges and prepared to face legal proceedings. Since the investigation pertained to two countries, this involved Interpol intervention.  Interpol, after a thorough investigation, found out a ransom amount of one million was paid to somebody through another country for the classified cargo.

Aravind Chopra, after his arrival, was in sheer confusion to take over the company as it entails resigning his present overseas job.   He had a formal chat with all the staff and found the General Manager Abhisekh was the suitable person to continue the business since he was bent upon retaining his overseas job. Arvind found in him a sincere and efficient person among others. He offered him an attractive deal that would make him accept his offer. The offer was that he would make him his partner and the profits to be shared equally by both. In this way Aravind found a way to continue the company as before without his personal presence and to go back to his foreign employment. Individual ownership of the company was converted to a partnership firm.  Abhisekh was thrilled at the offer. Arvind was happy with this deal as it would prevent his presence.  However, the cream of revenue was lost due to cancellation of the defense contract because of the mishandling of the last shipment.  Arvind had a farewell party to all staff and announced Abhisek as the new boss. He also announced his date of departure from India.

Interpol was serious about the suicide of Deepak Chopra as it had unanswered questions.  They want the police department to vigorously search for the cell phone in Deepak’s residence. In fact, Arvind himself was in ambiguity about the cell phone. Pande was the first to see Deepak’s demise and he had no idea about his cell phone. But he was sure, on the previous night, Deepak was having it for an incoming call when he left his place. The mystery of missing cell phone compounded the assertion that this piece of evidence would solve the puzzle.

 On the day of his departure when he was ready to leave in an hour’s time, to his surprise a team of police officers came to his house. Arvind told them of his departure that evening. As a last attempt they would go through a search operation for the cell phone which would complete well before his departure. Arvind was so sure of their inability in their endeavor.  The officers began their quest.  As all other officers failed, one officer was attracted with one book kept with other books in the bookcase. Casually he took it out and while he was glancing through the pages at random, found a piece of paper with scribbling on it. When he saw the contents in the paper, he realized something important and immediately showed it to the senior officer.  The scribbling written was “one million dirhams to account of Arvind Chopra”. This was the amount earlier found by Interpol as the ransom payment without the recipient’s name. With this they got the puzzle solved. This was the reason Arvind wanted to return to his job in Dubai.   With this evidence Arvind Chopra was arrested as an accessory to the crime and the case was closed.

Though Deepak Chopra was a beneficiary of the ransom, it was strangely at the behest of his inner conscience, he chose to commit suicide instead of living with it, since it was against his conscience in accepting the ransom. He had extensive torture by his inner conscience with the deal.  With his personal interest in getting the ransom money, it was obvious he sold his own motherland to a hostile country. The conscience insisted him to take a stroll down his memory lane of his past life.  Many years ago, he started his life only as a truck driver. He begged for loads to be transported from businesspeople to make a living. After years of struggle, opportunities knocked on his doors and he promptly availed them. With his hard and sincere work, the same motherland gave him a big fleet of trucks and made him a millionaire. Then followed his reputation as a philanthropist in society. With his affluence he got married to Sruthi Devi from a leading jeweler family. He later became a father to Arvind, his only son. He enjoyed utmost clientele confidence in his business. With all these positive developments in his life, suddenly greed took over him for unjust gain with a blurred vision on his erstwhile reputed and settled life. He accepted the offer of ransom, betraying his own motherland and sold the military consignment to a hostile country. He thought his present affluence and influence would circumvent any law.  With the deal he had not only sold his soul but also hypothecated his son’s as well. When he got the call regarding the ransom amount paid, his conscience warned him of the consequences.  He went through mental tormenting. Finally, his conscience won the battle through a self-inflicted gunshot to his own life. While the ransom was paid in another country in his son’s account to escape the clutches of law, indirectly the conscience made him scribble the details of payment on a piece of paper that finally was the witness for his son’s arrest as an accessory.  A sinister move was responsible for the collapse of a well-settled family.