INSPECTOR ISAAC'S LAST CASE

It was Monday morning and Police Inspector Isaac was getting ready for duty. He had only a couple of months more to retire after which he was scheduled to go and live with his son who worked in Rome, Italy. Isaac’s wife had already moved to Rome and so he was alone. He made his breakfast, had it and started on his bike for police station police division 33 which catered to 5 posh suburbs. As he entered, the armed cop at the entrance gave him a salute. He went into his office and booted the computer. The first message in his in box was this: ‘Pratap has flown. He might land up in his house in police division 33. Surveillance needs to be strengthened.’

Isaac sat back and recalled the dossier on Pratap: He had started life as a messenger in the service of the city’s civic body. He would be sent to do menial jobs like watering plants and cleaning garbage in the civic chief’s residence. The civic chief had an aged mother who had a masseuse Irma to look after her. Pratap was a short wiry man clean shaven and would often be chatting with Irma. While Pratap was only 28, Irma was 35 and was a spinster. She was tall and wasn’t bad looking. With the passing on of the old lady, Irma started a massage parlour in a part of her home. She got Pratap to quit his job and work with her. He was very active and soon had several clients coming in. He helped Irma to get more women to work as masseuses and by a combination of business and blackmail the two made a lot of money.

Once Pratap got an old man - an Arab - to the parlour whom Irma herself handled. The man was so impressed with her that he offered to marry her. She became his bride and left India. She handed over her two storey house to Pratap which he renovated and modernised. Sometime later, Irma sent a woman who was a deaf mute to live in a wing of her house. That woman hired a maid and made herself comfortable.

Irma had started a dry fruit export business from wherever she was overseas . Dry fruits from various places like Afghanistan Iraq etc were exported to India. Pratap ran the business using an experienced old man to be the front. Pratap’s ability to drum up customers now emerged. He got several business people to open Pratap dry fruit stores and his wedding pack was very popular. When a software mogul conducted the wedding of his daughter a large requirement of dry fruits came up. Pratap himself went abroad and settled the supplies with Irma. Irma’s husband had passed on and she had inherited all his property which was considerable. From reports it was concluded that Irma was intimate with Pratap. Following his successful deal with the mogul, Pratap was approached by a movie magnate for supplies and he came into contact with filmdom. So far Pratap had had a clean image.

Pratap continued to live in his house in PD 33. A few months later, Irma sent a deaf mute woman Nazifa to live in a wing of that house. Nazifa would always be in purdah. The woman wasn’t an Indian but for some unknown reason Irma had allowed her to live there. The woman hired a maid and their entire expenses were met by Irma.

Now, probably prompted by Irma, Pratap got into gold smuggling. A woman who had been caught trying to smuggle gold, told customs that the gold was to be delivered to Pratap. That was the first time his name came up in something illegal. He flatly refuted the allegation. The woman who had accused Pratap died but it had nothing to do with him. Husband and wife spats were common between them and he had hit her resulting in her death in a hospital. The case had been left to the police and the law for further action.

Pratap had a relative, a woman named Silk. She came to stay at his home and we believe she had become his mistress.  He had taken Silk along abroad perhaps to meet Irma. Irma wouldn’t tolerate Silk and we assume she threw them both out. We could only conclude that it was a case of jealousy. Silk was very friendly with Nazifa and they would go out often in their self driven cars.

 Pratap’s name went public again: He was accused of drug dealing. Police had a tip off that Pratap had been using the dry fruit trail to get hold of drugs but police hadn’t acted on it as no users had been identified. Police took the wait- and- watch position. At this stage Pratap went abroad. He came back within a few days and police who were keeping a watch on him found that after disembarking he had stayed in Hotel Magnolia but was suddenly missing.

Police of the Hotel Magnolia area looked for Pratap but he wasn’t found. The cops who were watching Pratap’s house saw the place being cleaned up since a few days. Inquiries  through a neighbour showed that Nazifa would be leaving.  Nazifa was often going out and returning by car but there was no sign of Pratap. A couple of days later, Nazifa and Silk left in a taxi. The next day the narcotics bureau raided Pratap early in the morning. When they went in, to their surprise, they found him sleeping.

The NB man asked “How is it you’re here?”

“I’ve been here all along. I went nowhere.”

“We’re going to search your place. These 2 gentlemen are independent witnesses and their identities are provided in this document.”

“Please do.”

They searched for 4 hours opening every storage space. They searched after opening the false roofing. They sounded the floor. They took all documents they could find. They searched the 3 car garage and under it. They looked into the two cars that were parked there. They opened the sump which was full of water and searched there besides in the overhead tanks. They weighed the cooking gas cylinders to see if there was something concealed. They opened and looked into the bag filled with fertiliser for the plants. They found nothing concealed anywhere. NB left after the search and after completing formalities witnessed by the 2 independent witnesses.

Newspapers the next day carried brief notes on the search and said certain papers had been found which would be examined.

Pratap who read the news said to himself “They will find details of medical reports, X-rays and the like. The important papers they would have liked to seize have been carried away by Nazifa and Silk. Other papers which aren’t needed have been burnt. Official papers of dry fruit deals are in the office and they are welcome to see them.” He laughed and said “They will wonder how I was at home. I came in unseen. Of course I went out several times by car as Nazifa hidden under her purdah. Of course Nazifa was needed! She must be in Tajikistan by now. I must talk to her and thank her. You may wonder how? She is neither deaf nor mute! She is part of my system.”

A month later, Inspector Isaac was given a formal send off after retirement when his long service was extolled. 10 days later Isaac was on a flight to Rome. His wife had already told him that all receipts were satisfactory which was code for money due to him from Pratap for services rendered having been received. That included the charge for return to his house in a police jeep driven by Inspector Isaac in the night from a railway station after having vanished from Hotel Magnolia! A source had told him the NB would raid him as soon as he was sighted.

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