Saturday, November 12, 2011

my QUEST for your CHEST

Everything is going on well as per plan till now. The beard I’ve been growing for over half a year is staying well with my otherwise south-indianised face. I could remember growing this big beard only once in my entire life time and that was during my 2nd year BE. That beard was propelled by Sheena’s rejection of my proposal and I still remember her not having patience to even cross the first page of my well-drafted 3 page love letter. More than 18 years have passed since then; many more sheenas crossed my life in different names, races & sizes before I ended up with this permanent one popularly known as Madhumitha (popularity not by fame, but by volume of words). But now, it is for a totally different purpose for which I’m growing now. My general knowledge said all Sikhs will definitely have beard and the Sikh identity I currently camouflaged into was decided after months of research. The tummy benevolently bestowed upon due to my 4 decade existence, the turban (Dastar) and the beard aptly made me a real Singh. It was by mere coincidence that the readymade turban I bought suited the task I was involved. It resembled Chand Tora Dhamala, a warrior style turban generally worn by Nihang Sikhs and meant for those going into battle. The only issue with my costume was the iron bracelet (Kara) which was little loose for my wrist and it was purposely kept so for ease of removal.

It is about 2 years from the time I got this thought and at that point of time. It started as a joke and I was asking myself why shouldn’t I do something different and memorable in life and have the thrill of seeing it through completion. After securing a seat in the Engineering course, I will only term it as my fore-fore-father’s virtue that I somehow managed to clear all papers at least with a second class. If someone had told that I’ll become a banker when I cleared my Electrical Engineering degree that would have been the best ever joke of my life. But after three and half years of job search, I saw the Grade II clerk job in National Bank as a yummy bone in the eyes of a stray dog starving for days together. It was only when my bank arranged a high tea party and gave that Apple IPod for completing 10 years, I realized my life has been wasted without any useful stuff. It is not the Apple IPod that demotivated me, but only that it was not able to satisfy me much. In the dinner I had with my wife Madhumitha & my 9 year old son Mukesh that evening, I decided that my life shouldn’t end with whatever accomplishments possible in the normal course of life. Later in the night, I couldn’t sleep until about 3 am worrying about what I decided, why can’t I do something which will make me feel triumphant & prove my worth to this world? Then came this novel thought, which I myself didn’t approve in the initial days. I wished to do a cold blooded murder with my own hands and come out of it crystal clean. Correction in my statement – not a cold blooded murder, why use the usual phrase – just a simple murder to prove I too can do something which a normal person cannot do in life. My intention was to loot money or take revenge on someone whom I dislike (as a matter of fact, there is none whom I dislike), but it is just a sort of thrill & more importantly, what I wanted in life – Accomplishment!!!

Though my plan had the possibility of feeling triumphant & accomplishment once it is executed, I had lot of reservations and aberrations in my own mind. Having been a vegetarian all these years, I wouldn’t even approve of killing of animals for food, but this thought had strangely occurred in my mind. So, the point is, am not a villain of the regular order you see in films, but it was just a game in life, in which the opponent is the society at large. I had made my own rules for the game – (a) no financial gain from my action should accrue to me, (b) the victim should not feel any pain or suffering, (c) the victim should be a person unrelated to me and there shouldn’t be any reason for me to kill him & (d) more importantly, I shouldn’t get caught at the end of my game.

It took more than a month to commence the selection process of identifying the victim. This is not like selecting people to invite for a family function, come on, the person will die if I succeed. So, I needed to be very careful and my treaded approach yielded the best possible result in just 2 months of search. Like any other office goer, much part of my productive time is spent in office & it was quite obvious that I had to select from my bank. The one who came bright in all my selection criteria making my search bit easier was Aneesh. Hailing from Kerala, he was working in the currency chest department doing some computer based security stuff. Though we work out of the same office, my work was in no way related to him, still I had to know basic things about his job and it was really boring. He was one of the specialized staff managing the security of the currency chest in our bank’s local head office located in the city center. All branches in our jurisdiction will need to park excess funds above their designed thresholds into the chest & withdraw as required. Nearing 30s, his family consisted of mother, two younger sisters waiting for marriage all based out of Kerala. This guy had lost his father few years back and was staying alone in a 1BHK house somewhere in a suburban residential area. He didn’t have many friends and was always literally locked inside the access protected chest cabin. I learnt that he was the sole breadwinner of the family, leaving aside the petty salary drawn by his first younger sister from her teacher job. It was also understandable that the task of getting his sisters married was this person’s responsibility with very little family savings.

After firming upon the target, my next few months were spent in knowing him better. I spent more time thinking about him than what I used to spend on my wife or son or even myself. I suddenly got a sense of meaningful involvement in life and as though there is a mighty task ahead for me to complete. Point (c) of my rules was fulfilled with this guy – not related to me & his life or death wouldn’t make any difference to me. Being in the bank for so many years and well acquainted with its compensation benefits, I was also aware that he will get a sizable amount due to his death which could help his family & his sisters’ marriage. He didn’t seem to be involved in any affair as his marriage can happen only after his sisters’ and thereby, no problem of his lover getting into a state of despair after his death. I should be proud of myself that I indirectly induced a life insurance agent to make him subscribe for a hefty life insurance policy.

Next stages of my planning process involved deciding the modus-operandi. To ensure item (d) of my golden rules, I had to find a way in which there is no trail or evidence left behind. Amid the bunch of people who frequented cyber cafĂ© to do voice chats & to see porno sites in privacy, I used to be busy in learning ways to kill a person. I avoided browsing such sites neither in office nor home. There were lot of good techniques (I know, good is an oxymoron in this context) but they had the intensity of causing pain to our poor Aneesh thereby contravening with rule (b). Only then I realized that my father’s hard earned money in making me study Electrical Engineering is not being put to use. It couldn’t help me get a decent job, but it suggested that the method has to be high voltage electrical shock in his chest. This seemed to be an adorable option which might give the impression of heart attack to the external world and me, the perpetrator can walk scot-free. I selected Defibrillation as the method for execution which is nothing but the shock treatment shown in films to resurrect the dead hero and make him re-appear with a new getup. The voltage has to be in excess of 360 joules of energy to hinder the heart rhythm and causing fatal end. With some electrical appliances that were available in my home and by selectively purchasing distinct items from multiple distributors, I assembled my own unit for triggering the shock. Thanks to Larry Page, the internet became my free tutor and I found how true the film “A Wednesday” was in telling one can even make bomb with internet articles. The unit came out as a masterpiece for my game capable of causing quick & strong vasovagal shock to the vagus nerves. It was well-designed to result in the target’s death without any sort of pain whatsoever, the highlight being cause of death will still appear to be a normal heart attach for the external world.

What next? This is what my mind was thinking during the next few weeks. I thought since I had come to this level, a fool-proof blue-print was required to explain the probable sequence of events for the ultimate execution. Yes, it is going to be a real execution. As usual, I took my own time to think well and to come up with a game plan. I need to undertake a personal trip to place at least 400 – 500 kms away and return by a late evening train. After having boarded the train, I should detrain and catch a flight and reach in the shortest possible time. Since I will be carrying the electrical unit, I should have it checked in and not get caught during hand baggage security check. I should get into the Sikh costume on my way from airport to Aneesh’s house so that there is no eye-witness left behind. However, when Aneesh sees me, he should see me in my normal attire. I need to then tell him that I came to visit some friend in the nearby area and my car broke down while returning. Since I remembered the existing of your house in the vicinity, I parked the car there and thought of spending the night here, provided it doesn’t trouble you. In the morning, I shall get some mechanic to repair the car and drive back home. Once he gets to sleep, my unit will do the trick and I should safely get away from his house after ensuring the game is over. While returning, I should against disguise myself back into the Sikh costume so that it will put the suspect as some unknown Singh. I’ve to then shift 2 / 3 vehicles and reach the major railway station just before the one I was originally supposed to get down.

During this sequence, I should have relinquished the Sikh identity prior to boarding the penultimate vehicle and in a place where no one can see me. By doing all these, I’ll get down in the railway station where I was originally supposed to detrain and make my presence felt in the CCTV of the destination station. There were few things I need to do to ensure my presence will be felt in the station where I’ll get down – (a) as per railway rules, all tickets issues need to be collected at destination and an entry of such collected tickets should be maintained. By surrendering my ticket to the Ticket Collector at gate, a record of me passing the gate is established. (b) Since all major railway stations have Closed Circuit TVs, I should walk casually in front of that to show my face (I only wonder the CCTVs work & are not victims of yet another scam) (c) I should book a prepaid taxi giving my name and mobile number and also my address of residence to have a record that I actually travelled in the train and taxi. This plan was gone over umpteen numbers of times and all the loop holes propped were amicably fixed to my satisfaction. A key element for success was the month and date of this operation as it should be appropriate enough to ensure there will be less traffic & Aneesh will be in home for sure, and more especially, alone.

When I thought I had almost crossed the well in my planning, came this major blow. Aneesh got transfer orders to his home-state near his native as the bank was setting up a currency chest in that city. If Aneesh leaves, what will I do with my unit, should I use the unit on myself? But it was not required to ask that question for more than 10 days as I was rewarded with the good news that Aneesh requested for cancellation of his transfer order. Since I worked on the principle of “not believing myself” in the whole episode, I was eager to know as to why he took this decision to reject the transfer. It made complete sense for him to take this transfer as his native was just couple of hours’ journey from the place of posting. They say the whole world will appear blue if you were blue glasses (I tried once while watching a film in my college days!!). So, I wondered whether he was making some plot to kill someone else like me. But everyone in the world will not be as crazy like me, will they? Little bit of CBI work into the reasoning behind his decision revealed that the whole purpose of his action was to complete the CISA course he had enrolled for. Infact, he hadn’t completely refused to go on transfer, but had only requested for its postponement by a 6 months period. If I had funds I would have built a temple for this CISA, which I later learnt was the abbreviation for Certified Information Systems Auditor. The whole episode of transfer order issuance & Aneesh deferring only gave additional strength to my plan and reiterated my resolve to see it to completion.

But for this brief hiccup, planning process resumed from where I had left. Since my plan contained the element of me visiting his house, it became imperative for me to get acquainted with his house. I spruced up a situation to visit his house and the whole plan went on well. I was able to visit his house, inspect the area, neighborhood and what’s more, had a good glance inside his house also. This visit would definitely help me on the day of execution as the playfield will be already known.

Eighteen months from the time I got the original thought, I was in a reasonably comfortable situation with a confidence that I’ve adequately planned it with perfection. Only the date and time was to be decided and the last minute logistics. With the various factors that were to be considered, I chose the night before Diwali as the most preferable option. On the day of Naraka Chaturdashi, I planned my killing, in which ironically neither Aneesh was Narakasura, nor I Lord Krishna or his wife Satyabhama. I booked train tickets for myself with my credit card to leave out of station two days prior to Diwali and return journey on the night prior to Diwali. An air ticket was also booked for returning, it was by cash through a travel agent so as to fly down few hours after the train departure. As decided earlier, my plan was to show my ticket to the TTE (stands for Travelling Ticket Examiner, not TTR as widely referred to) and make an entry of my travel in his chart. The return Air ticket was booked from a place few stations after departure and in place where the airport was close to railway station.

The “D” day finally came. After the planned events of train journey, and boarding flight in between, I landed in the airport with a 25 minutes delay from the scheduled time. My planned itinerary was able to accommodate even a 90 minutes delay and 25 minutes didn’t cause any dent. My luggage was so light and it just contained the Sikh costume which I changed in the airport rest room and the apparatus I devised for Defibrillation. This ends the 2 year long story of how a vegetarian, married guy with a son, Engineer turned banker appearing in a Sikh costume is sitting in a prepaid taxi with a single hand baggage and proceeding towards a house in the outskirts of the city.

When I got down from the taxi, the time was 35 minutes past 12. The day of Diwali had already started, but people around the city were yet to wake up. In some dark place close to his house, I easily removed my Sikh costume and put in the bag I was carrying. The bag contained one other item – the apparatus I had designed for put together for generation the high intensity shock. When I was turning from a north-Indian to south-Indian, I ran through what I should tell Aneesh when I meet him. Somehow the car breaking down story didn’t seem to go well with the situation. Bingo, I got a totally different plan which seemed quite splendid for the situation. Slowly I moved toward Aneesh’s house and pressed the calling bell. Did I see the light glowing inside his house, not sure, it could be a reflection of moon’s light through the windows also. Each second passed like hell and he took hell a lot of time to open the door. As expected there was shock in his face when he saw me, not knowing he is going to get greater shocks little further. I unleashed the revised plan to explain the reason for my presence there at this point of time. I told him that I was supposed to reach well before 8 pm, but that my train got delayed due to Telengana related strikes. I further added stating that I had plans to go to native which was around 200 kms away along with family for Diwali, but due to the delay, my family was forced to leave alone. The story continued - only after detraining, that I realized I didn’t have the house key and since I remembered Aneesh’s house being in the vicinity, thought of spending the night with him.

My story seemed to be well received by him and was greeted by his trademark smile. But I somehow felt he was not very much comfortable with my appearance at this point of time. He offered me to sit in the sofa placed in the hall. I said I’ll just rest myself in the sofa itself as it was just matter of hours before I could leave. He assented to it and took leave and went inside to bring some dhoti for me to get changed. I once again replayed the plan I had in mind. After couple of hours, say by around 3 AM, I should connect my apparatus to power and barge into his bedroom. Its protruding ends should be kept in his chest for 2 minutes continuously till the pulse level drops and becomes nil. I should ensure I don’t touch anywhere or leave any trail signifying my arrival, here. Sitting in the sofa, I had to turn back for a cursory scan of his bedroom, the same bedroom in which he was trying to fish out a dhoti for me. There was couple of plug points placed conveniently near the bed room door, which are going to assist me in finishing the game. He took bit more time than I expected to bring the dhoti and that delay was disgustingly increasing my heart beat as I was in a hurry to stop his.

Suddenly came a loud noise from behind and I felt something entering my head from back. I started feeling some sort of pain in my head, by when one more loud noise came. My neck became wet with some red fluid flowing down my chest and I fell in the sofa. Aneesh was standing behind me with a gun in his hand, two shots from it already fired into my head. I found it hard to keep my eyes open and the nauseating pain had now spread to my entire head. With half eyes open which were also slowly closing, I could see Aneesh inject one more bullet and this time, in my chest. I felt as though I lost entire control of my body but the pain was dying down, in fact I didn’t even feel that I had a body. I couldn’t see anything, but was able to hear what was going on around and I heard Aneesh telling “Hello” and speaking with someone in his mobile.

Aneesh: It’s all over. I shot three times with the gun you gave for my safety. And before shooting, I ensured no one came with him. Even the gun sound won’t make any difference as it would have sounded like a Diwali cracker.




PAUSE



Aneesh: Ya, after having planned all these months to loot the currency chest, I was shocked to see him in my house. That’s when I called you immediately in the pretext of going to the room to take dhoti. We selected this day for breaking the chest considering the Diwali sales collections that will get deposited in bank and the bonus payout of companies. He said all sorts of things – train strike, no key etc. and my mind was only thinking about the 416 crores we all secured in my bed room few minutes back. I thought the transfer order I got was the major unexpected hurdle in our plan which I was somehow able to defer, but this turned out to be an even bigger one.


PAUSE


Aneesh: Ok, I’ll wash the blood and pack his body. You bring the vehicle as soon as possible and we can carry him along with the money. xxxxx


I gathered that Aneesh had stolen money from our bank’s currency chest, but I was losing all senses, including the voice of Aneesh and slowly, everything turned total blank.

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New paper article few days later….

416 cr. Bank Robbery – Involvement of Insiders - Body of Bank staff identified

An interesting twist has happened in the recent Rs. 416 crores bank robbery. The body of a bank staff who was working in the same office where the currency chest was broken open and stolen was identified. With this, involvement of insiders along with external parties has been established in the multi-crore theft. Police feel quarrel between the parties in sharing the money which could have led to firing of the bank staff who helped them. A bag accompanying the body was also recovered by the Police which contained a Sikh costume, possibly used to disguise him and a sophisticated electrical apparatus, alleged to have been used in the robbery. The theory of police version was supported his absence in the bank on the day of the incident. Madhumitha, the deceased person’s wife has been arrested on suspicion and is currently being interrogated by police officials. Eight special teams have been formed to investigate the robbery that shook the whole banking system in India.