Episode 49
Though the picture quality was very poor, Roy had no problem in understanding what was happening there. He could see that Rajan came out of his room. He was being escorted to a place by a masked man. Initially, Roy was very reluctant to share the details of their investigation method with the cops, but now this being a joint operation with them, he had no other option. Therefore, he briefly narrated the scene to Srinivas.
They had left the main town 10 minute back. The landscape was completely rural now. There were agricultural fields on both sides of the 12 feet wide pitch road. The lush greenery, the smell of coriander, the beautiful, yellow, eye-soothing mustard flowers made Srinivas, who hailed from rural area, a bit nostalgic for a moment. Had it been a time of leisure, he would have definitely brooded with dreary eyes sitting right there in the coriander field.
However, his momentary trance was rudely broken by the crashing sound of a sudden brake. Furiously, he looked at the police driver. The driver shrugged his shoulders and pointed towards the front. Indeed, the pilot car of the local police also made a sudden brake which left him with no other option.
Srinivas, Khan and Roy quickly got down from the car to enquire about the reason for this sudden stoppage at this crucial juncture. There was hardly 10 minute left before 4 PM. They could not afford any stoppage now.
When they got down, they were amazed to see that a big, white, bull with sharp, fearsome curved horns and with a huge hump was sitting majestically on the road. It was ruminating without paying any hiddance to the repeated loud sound of honking. Mukherjee, the local OC, and four other constables from the local police were trying hard to remove him from the road without getting any results.
Srinivas was helplessly looking at his watch, while Roy threw some water from his waterbottle on the body of the bull. This action had caught his attention, as he stopped ruminating and angrily looked at Roy, but didn't move an inch.
Boom! Everyone one was startled by the sound of a gun shot, and the dangerous looking bull quickly fled from the place.
"There was no other option guys! Let's move! There is only 5 minutes to 4." The team leader of the Andhra STF, Khan placed his revolver back to the holster after firing a bullet in air to scare the bull.
"How much time will it take to reach there from here? Have they started the final competition?" Srinivas asked eagerly.
There was a clear sign of discontentment in Roy's face. Srinivas could clearly see that his whitish face had turned red. There were few beep sounds of incoming messages on his phone.
"We have almost reached the place. Look at the turn around 500 meters from here. The compound lies after the turn." Roy replied trying to maintain his composure, but the discomfort in his voice was noticeable.
"Is there a problem? What's the update there?" Srinivas asked anxiously.
"Well! Yes! No!" Roy again fumbled.
"What yes, no? Is there a problem? Cough it up man?" Khan seemed to be in a no-nonsense mood.
"Well, our guy has lost connection and it appears that they have removed him from their membership a few minutes back. So, no live updates from now onwards from that source! But, not much to worry about that because I got the GPS coordinates of the field where the three competitors were present before the loss of connection."
Roy announced as the cars stopped before the front gate of the large compound.
Khan was extremely disappointed, as they were completely depending on the live feed from Roy's colleague. Had he apprehended this, he would have arranged drones. But there was no time to quibble over this at the moment, as it was 4 PM.
The two AK 47-wielding, wearing-a-steel-coloured-uniform, Gurkha guards didn't seem to be too perturbed by the arrival of 20 policemen and 5 other guys. Khan showed them the warrant, and asked,
"Do you have licence for these guns?"
The Gurkha guards paid no attention to Khan's querries, and one of them rang someone from his mobile phone. Being an SP of a district, Khan was accustomed to getting respects from these kinds of petty guards. But these two guards neither saluted him, nor answered his question. However, Mukherjee came to their rescue by answering,
"Yes Sir! They have valid licenses."
That answer didn't placate Khan's mood. Inspite of seeing the warrant from the magistrate, the guards were not letting anybody enter the premises. Khan pushed one of the guards angrily.
As his surname suggested, he was indeed a true descendant of Pathans; six-feet tall, strongly built, not too muscular though, erect body, crew-cut hair and a well-shaved thin moustache, but the most prominent point that everyone noticed were his fearsome eyes. All his subordinates and even his colleagues and seniors feared his penetrating looks. He was a man of no-nonsense attitude. His record of closing cases had been exceptional.
The Gurkha guard probably didn't expect this as he fell on the ground. But immediately, the other guard unlocked the safety catch of his gun and pointed it towards Khan. The STF jawans were battle-hardened, who had been fighting battles with insurgents for long time, and they too pointed their guns towards the two guards. The clanking sound of opening of safety catches of guns made the situation extremely volatile. The other Gurkha guard also took no time to be in position pointing his gun towards Khan. Khan and Srinivas, too, pointed their revolvers towards the guards. Mukherjee didn't know what to do. He looked here and there helplessly.
Before the situation went out of hand, a Jaguar made a sudden appearance out of nowhere. An old man accompanied by none other than Ranjan got down from the car. Ranjan raised his hands, and the Gurkha guards immediately took their arms down, and saluted the guests.
"Hello Mr Mukherjee! What's the matter? Why so many police personnel?" Ranjan asked innocently.
"Who are you?" Khan asked Ranjan.
"Oh me? I am Prasun Das, the personal secretary of Mr Lakhotia. He is the owner of this property." Ranjan pointed his finger towrads a frail, old man, whose face was covered by beards; he was wearing black sunglasses, and a hat. Mr Lakhotia was wearing coat, pant and shoes, his hands were covered with gloves.
Roy took a picture out of his pocket and was trying to match it with Mr Lakhotia. Srinivas showed the warrant to Mr Lakhotia, who immediately passed it to Ranjan.
"What an extraordinary imagination! You think we have abducted people here and you need to search the property? Holy crap!" Ranjan shouted.
"Let us in! We have proofs that you are running an illegal reality show here." Srinivas said.
"Of course, please come in! But be prepared to face libel in the court for trying to falsely implicate us. We will see you in the court on Monday." Ranjan warned.
There was definitely a show of confidence in his voice, which confused the cops.
"Come with me. I have the accurate GPS coordinates where the illegal activity is going on." Roy led the team with him.
When they came to the football ground running behind Roy, they were taken for a surprise, as the place was empty barring a few cows who were happily eating lush green grasses.
"Ha ha! Are you sure you are searching a man or are you searching cows? In the latter case, I must tell you that these cows are legally owned by Mr Lakhotia." Ranjan's smiled sarcastically.
That was a huge loss of face for Roy and others. Only Mukherjee's face seemed to be glowing. He heaved a sigh of relief.
To be continued on tomorrow night
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