The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian) (29 page)

BOOK: The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian)
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‘Sure,’ said the ACP as he got up. Looking at Hemant he said, ‘Maybe you can give them the details. I will have to head back. Have to report this new development before I leave for home.’ The ACP shook hands with them and left. Indrani turned and looked at Hemant. ‘Now that you know what’s going on, please help Karan and Kavya through this.’ Hemant looked at her blankly. Karan took his arm and led him inside the conference room. It was time for a quick debriefing.

35

Devikulam

Evening, 31
st
January 2012

Early evening, after Sulochana’s sermon to Krishna, she left him alone to reminisce on his easy chair, and went to the nearby temple—a routine that she had followed every single day since they had moved to Devikulam. Krishna sat there for a long time wondering what had gone wrong. He had set out to do some good for the people in the neighbourhood. The ill fate that had befallen him over two decades ago should not come upon anyone else in Devikulam. That was all he wanted. Was that a crime?

Jayakumar’s ascendency in the protest-related matters had caused him a fair bit of grief. Not because he was now beginning to hog the limelight, something which even Sulochana thought was the reason for the rift, but because the agenda Jayakumar had was completely divergent from his. While Krishna wanted the well-being of people in the neighbourhood, Jayakumar wanted favours. The latter had a political agenda, which if met, would not only signal the end of Jaya’s role in the protest, but the protest itself.

It could also not be ignored that the protest had really gathered steam and got noticed both by the local and national media only after Jaya’s NGO had backed the protest. Whether it was the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster that got the press to notice TNPP or it was the financial muscle of CNRI, he wasn’t too sure.

But after hearing multiple conversations that Jaya had had with people across, he was shattered. He had to distance the protest from Jaya’s agenda before it was too late.

He picked up his phone—an old Nokia handset. He stared at it for a long time while confusing and contrary thoughts churned through his mind at a feverish pace. Should he or shouldn’t he? Finally, he decided to go ahead and make the call. Selecting a contact on the phone, he dialled the number.

‘Times Today, Mumbai,’ someone picked up the telephone at the office of the most popular TV News channel in the country.

‘Can I speak to Mohit Sengupta?’

‘Who should I say is calling?’

‘Krishna Menon. I am calling from Devikulam and it is regarding the protest against the Trikakulam Nuclear Power Plant.’

36

GB2, Mumbai

Evening, 31
st
January 2012

Hemant’s debriefing took about fifteen minutes. When he walked in, Hemant had wondered as to why Indrani had preferred an outsider to investigate what was internal to the bank, and not handed it over to the fraud control team. When he heard the entire story, however, his doubts vanished.

Kavya was patiently waiting for Karan to finish. The moment he was through, she butted in, ‘Karan, the CCTV feed for the Cochin branch has come in. Do you want to see it now?’

‘Do we have an option Kavya?’

‘I would love to have one, but unfortunately I don’t.’ The banter between Karan and Kavya was flirtatious but for Hemant, who had no clue about their relationship, it was a bit strange.

‘Hemant, I had asked for the Cochin CCTV footage to figure out who had withdrawn money from the account of Asia Logistics from the branch in Cochin this morning.’ Hemant nodded.

The video started playing on Kavya’s laptop. The security camera was placed high up on the ceiling, behind the cash queue and facing the cashier. So when a customer walked towards the cashier his back was towards the cashier. The idea was to encapsulate every single thing happening at the cash counter. If ever a customer made a suspicious move, the security camera would capture it.

Like most other branches, GB2 opened its branches at 9.00 a.m. As per the transaction report, the cash withdrawal from the Asia Logistics account had occurred at 10.06 a.m. Kavya kept forwarding the CCTV footage till the overlaid clock in the video showed a time of 9.57 a.m. and then she played back at normal speed. The cash counter was empty.

9.58 a.m.: The first customer, a lady walks in. She walks up to the counter, hands over some documents and leaves.

‘Looks like a normal transaction,’ Karan observed.

9.58 a.m.: Three customers walk up to yellow line before the cash counter, waiting for their turn. Their backs are clearly visible. But their faces are turned towards the counter. The cashier is not at the counter.

‘Probably gone for a comfort break,’ Karan whispered, and suddenly wondered why he was whispering. It was not as if the people in the branch would hear them.

9:59 a.m.: The cashier returns to his station and one customer walks up to the counter. The other two patiently wait for their turn.

10.00 a.m.: The cashier again gets up from his station, probably to check on something to do with the cheque. Returns in thirty seconds. He hands over the cheque to the customer, who turns it around and signs it. The cashier hands him the cash and the customer turns. His face is now clearly visible.

‘Is he the guy?’ Karan was excited. ‘No Karan, our transaction took place at 10.06. Its only 10.02 now,’ Kavya pointed out.

10.02 a.m.: The next customer walks up to the teller counter. The cashier is busy doing something on his computer and doesn’t even look at the customer. The customer keeps a cheque on the counter, which the cashier picks up. He says something to the customer. The customer answers back.

‘Why don’t they build security cameras which capture the audio too? Will make life so easy for us. Who the hell knows what they are saying?’ Hemant, like a true fraud control guy, wanted to know everything. ‘Life’s never perfect, dude.’ Hemant just smiled and returned to the video feed.

10.03 a.m.: After a brief chat, the cashier gets up and moves away. He has the cheque in his hand.

‘Probably getting it authorized by his supervisor,’ Kavya looked at both Hemant and Karan. ‘Hmm,’ both of them nodded simultaneously.

10:04 a.m.: The cashier returns. Goes though the normal routine of making the customer sign on the back of the cheque. Pulls out cash from a drawer below the counter and passes on bundles of cash to the customer, who puts it in his bag

10:05 a.m.: The customer leaves and the next one walks up to the counter.

‘Aaaaah there is our guy,’ said Karan. ‘Fraud bastard!’ exclaimed Kavya. Hemant remained silent.

10.06 a.m.: The customer patiently waits for the cashier to look up from his system and take his cheque. The cashier smiles at him. Accepts the cheque. Looks at the back of the cheque. It’s already signed. He pulls out bundles from a cash trunk kept next to his table and hands over cash to the customer.

10.07 a.m.: The customer picks up the cash. Counts the bundles. Puts them in his bag and turns.

‘Freeze it there!’ shouted Karan.

‘That’s our man.’ Kavya had a grin on her face, as if the issue had been resolved.

‘Can we zoom in on his face?’ At Karan’s request, Kavya took a screen shot and zoomed into the image. It was a bit hazy, but the face could still be seen.

‘Who the hell is he?’

‘I don’t know. We will have to figure that out.’ And then he looked at Hemant. ‘Is there any way we can figure out who this guy is?’

‘Not too sure Karan. But I just saw something. I’m not too sure if you guys noticed it too.’

‘What would that be?’

‘The cashier smiled at this customer. He didn’t smile at the previous two.’

‘What does that prove?’ asked Karan

‘It shows that the customer who the cashier smiled at might be a regular in the Cochin branch,’ Hemant argued. He was not convinced that this customer was a fraud. ‘We have seen multiple cash withdrawals from the Asia Logistics account from Cochin. So it’s possible that this customer is a regular.’

‘Yes. That’s true. But the cashier smiled and acknowledged this guy. He was also very prompt in giving him the cash. He even gave him multiple bundles without any supervisor authorization. It shows us that the cashier knows him very well. So to me, unless the cashier too is involved in this transaction, there is no way this guy is a fraud.’

‘But the transaction has taken place at 10.06 a.m. as per the reports. And this is the guy in the Cochin branch at 10.06.’ Kavya had a frown on her face as she explained this to Hemant.

‘Can I see the transaction history of the account?’ Hemant stretched out his right hand towards Kavya, who promptly handed it over to him. Hemant took a minute to read it.

‘Hold on guys,’ he exclaimed with a grin on his face and looked up at the two of them. ‘The transaction report shows that the cash withdrawal was at 10.06 a.m. That means 10.06 a.m. is the time when the transaction was entered into the system and authorized.’

‘Keep talking. . .keep talking. Don’t stop’, Karan prodded.

‘Karan, it means that the transaction happened before 10.06 a.m., but was posted into the system at 10.06 a.m. See this video again,’ and he played it again on Kavya’s laptop. He also started giving a running commentary.

‘When the second customer leaves, it’s 10.05 a.m. The third customer walks up to the counter, it’s still 10.05 a.m. The cashier is still doing something on the computer. The clock is ticking. It’s 10.06 a.m. now. The cashier is still at it. Let’s see when he looks up. . . Aahh. . .and now our friend looks up. It’s well past

10.06 a.m., very close to 10.07 a.m. All this while our cashier was posting the large value cheque given to him by the second customer. The customer we are looking for, whose entry reflects at 10.06 a.m. is not the third but the second customer.’

‘Not bad Hemant. I am glad we have a fraud control guy in our team’, complimented Kavya, and that almost instantaneously made Karan jealous. They quickly rewound the tape and looked at the video image of the second customer.

‘Wow!’ exclaimed Hemant when Kavya froze the frame and took a screen shot of the second customer. ‘I haven’t seen a better CCTV image in ages.’

‘Kavya, can you please print out copies of this picture. Let’s see if we can figure out who this guy is?

‘Why don’t we ask the Cochin branch?’ Kavya recommended.

‘Let’s do that. Hemant, will you please take charge of this?’

‘Sure Karan.’

Karan picked up one of the pictures printed out by Kavya and gave it a long and hard stare, as if memorizing the pixel positions in the picture. ‘Who are you my friend? Who are you? If I get to you, I will get to the bottom of this mystery. Come on, come on. Show yourself up.’

‘Karan,’ Kavya interrupted his soliloquy. ‘What did you say?’

‘Nothing sweetheart, was just wondering who this guy is.’

‘We will figure that out. Hemant is on it. By the way, do you want to look at the personal files of the RMs or shall I return them? HR came asking for it. They have to lock it up in a fireproof safe before they leave for the day.

‘Tell them that there is a bigger fire burning here, bigger than anything they’ve ever seen. Don’t return any files. Let them be here.’ Karan never liked his thought process to be disturbed.

‘Yes, my lord and master,’ Kavya retorted, sarcastically.

 

37

Vienna

Afternoon of 31
st
January 2012

Johann Schroeder and his team made a dash towards Mohrengasse, a block away from Hotel Nestroy, a popular hotel on Rottensterngasse. Mohrengasse was a fairly peaceful street, with some classy residential buildings. Just off the upmarket and posh Mohrengasse was a long stretch of a narrow lane called Odeongasse. A stretch which symbolized the urban microcosm, in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt district, was where Schroeder and his team were headed. An overcrowded locality, it was the probably the only part of Vienna which was an unpleasant mix of tiny apartments and offices. It was also, to a certain extent, the underbelly of most of the city’s limited criminal activities.

Schroeder’s car screeched to a halt in front of a building. Adjacent to that building was a low rise—a three-storied building called Jewish Towers. A scowl formed on Schroeder’s face when he saw the name. The four cars stopped in a pattern they were used to. One stopped ahead, one behind Schroeder’s car, and one went around the building to the back as a cover in case anyone tried to escape from behind. They seemed to know their job very well. A back-up team was stationed at Hotel Nestroy, just in case help was required.

Schroeder got down from the car and walked towards Jewish Towers. No one stopped them. They entered from the ground floor and walked straight to the lift. Next to the lift was a staircase. Schroeder decided to use the staircase, as he had to go up to the second floor. The building seemed unoccupied.

Under normal circumstances, Schroeder would have left it to his team to manage, but this was a high profile case and he had to make sure that it was quickly resolved. The Austrian police had been acknowledged as the best in Europe, and Johann Schroeder wanted to keep it that way. It was the only way for him to succeed Gerhard Purtsi when the latter retired from his current role in six months.

The stairwell was not lit well, but it was good enough for the team to carry out the operation. Stealthily, they climbed up to the second floor. The door to the unit they were looking for was locked. Outside was a board that said: Union of Jews Foundation. The entire floor was deserted. It was quite strange because the building itself was a mix of private residences and a few office units. In fact, from the look of it, some residence units were being used as an office. The local laws in Vienna permitted such usage.

‘Open it,’ said Schroeder, looking at one of the officers. An officer got to work and in no time the door was thrown open and they entered the office.

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