Episode 4: SHOW ME THE MONEY

 

Rewind: Same day, 8:00 AM

Brijraj Patel was a stickler for routines, especially the one related to his money - counting his money before he went to bed and the first thing in the morning. 

His wife called him a miser, as did his children. He had assets
above 200 crores, yet he hated what he termed as "unnecessary" expenditure of any kind. In fact he had several sleepless nights after his son requested for a BMW for his 16th birthday and went on a hunger strike until he caved. 

Kids today were such spendthrifts, thought Brijraj. To this day, he kept his father’ safe with him, perpetually stocked with ten to twenty lakhs since he believed the safe brought him luck. 

He also had his special secret storage unit under his bed where he kept close to 5 crores, a small part of his unaccounted money.

Unlike other parents he did not have huge aspirations for his children's individual success, he had it all planned, his daughter he would marry off to a rich businessman and his son would mange his business, under his strict supervision of course. 

With the daughter he did not have much trouble as she chose to go to a local college for an Arts course but his son was a different story. His demands were never ending, X-box, Iphone, Ipad, BMW, overseas holidays …..…so much money going down the drain.

The morning began like any other, with Brijraj immersed in his luxurious bath. The faint ring of a phone broke his tranquil ritual. His brow furrowed. He never brought his phone to the bath.

“Must be my imbecile son. I am not getting him a new one if he  screws this up!!!” 

The phone kept ringing relentlessly. Irritated, Brijraj stepped out of the bath, soap suds trailing down his scalp. Following the sound, he found a cheap old Chinese phone lying near the vent.

“What in the world?!” Brijraj exclaimed, holding the cheap, clunky device at arm’s length as if it were cursed. 

“This isn’t mine! Who left this here?”

He decided to answer it anyway

“Allo”

“Hello, Brijraj Patel”, said the menacing voice at the other end

“Yes,” he replied, his heart skipping a beat.

“We have some important information for you” said the voice

“Who is this” asked a confused Brijraj

“We have your daughter, Komal.”

“What!!!!” said Brijraj, the cell phone almost slipping out of his hand

“If you value her life, bring 3 cr to us” ordered the voice

“Allo, I don’t understand” said Brijraj panting for breath, he felt his chest tighten as if he was going to have a heart attack

And the next voice he heard was that of his daughter crying out in pain “Papa, papa…..”

“Have you heard enough? Remember, you don’t speak to the police or anyone else in your family or she dies.”

"Please please don't harm her, I will not tell anyone" pleaded Brijraj

“Check under your doormat” said the voice before the call went
blank

Brijraj’s head was still reeling from all the information.

He quickly got into his bathrobe, the soap still running down his scalp and rushed to the door. He moved the doormat and under it was his daughter’s photo, tied to a chair, her face bruised.

He gasped, his hand covering his mouth to stifle a scream.

Another phone began ringing — this time from inside his car. Grabbing the BMW keys, Brijraj unlocked the car and searched frantically, accidentally knocking over the car freshener.“Damn it!” he cursed, The overpowering scent made him gag, but he finally found the phone under the seat.

“..Allo” he answered breathlessly.

“Brijraj” said the voice"

“Yes....yes” said Brijraj

“Ok next burn the photo in your hand, we are watching” said the voice

Brijraj took the lighter from the car and burnt the photo and held it up as he stepped outside the car.

“Now,” the voice continued, “bring ₹3 crores to Park Café by 1 PM. Sit at table 5. Bring the money you keep under your bed. Further instructions will follow” said the voice before the call went blank.

Brijraj wasn’t sure what to do. The phones were throw away and he knew the kidnappers would be using the same thing. But what shocked him deeply was how much the kidnappers knew about where he kept the money. He didn’t have much time. 

He closed his bedroom door, opened up the secret compartment under the bed. He grabbed his suitcase and started putting in the money bundles into it. Suddenly he had an idea, he knew the money was untraceable but he felt he should not let the thugs get away with his hard earned money just like that. 

He got out the Cash Tracking Unit he had recently got his hands on (with much difficulty) from abroad. It could tag serial numbers at a rate of 900 bills per minute. He knew the notes would eventually turn up somewhere, yes it was a bit of a stretch. That was Plan A. He also had a Plan B but that would mean following the money route physically. He knew just the person to call who could help him out with both Plan A and B. He got his special SIM he used for such occasions and called up his friend.

“Pandey” said Brijraj

“Hah Patel, what’s up” asked Pandey. He knew Patel called only if there was something important

“Small problem” said Brijraj

Brijraj explained the situation

Pandey listened patiently and then said, “Ok here’s what you do, follow their instructions. Ring me on this phone and keep it active in your pocket before you get out at the café, and I will be able to hear what you say. I will be in the vicinity of Park Café and will try to follow the money trail”

“Ok” replied Brijraj

As instructed Brijraj got out of his home without breathing a word to his wife or son, the latter was at school anyway. He got into his faithful Ambassador car and drove to the café. As instructed he rang Pandey before he got out of the car and kept the call active. He then made his way to table 5 with the money. As soon as he sat down, a mobile begin to ring and Brijraj found it taped to the underside of his table. 

“Allo” answered Brijraj

“Take the money, hail an auto to Hospital Sunrise and go to floor ten” said the voice.

Brijraj Patel pretended to repeat the instructions as if to sound he was confirming them but only so that Pandey received the info.

Brijraj got into the auto and asked to be taken to Sunrise hospital. Pandey followed stealthily.

At Sunrise hospital, as instructed Brijraj went to the tenth floor. There seemed to be no one around. He waited near the lift when the lift opened and a peon came briefly outside and slipped him a note before he disappeared back into the lift. 

Brijraj read out the note, “at the far end of the corridor is a garbage chute, near the chute there is a green bag, put the money in the green bag and drop it down the chute. If money is good, your daughter will be home for dinner”

Pandey, who was in the lobby scanning the stairway and lift
exits, now stationed himself in a strategically apt position that would allow him to spot anyone coming out of the waste disposal room with the green bag so he could follow the trail.

Upon finding the garbage chute at the end of the corridor,
Brijraj transferred the money into the green bag placed near it and dropped the bag into the garbage chute. “Ok I dropped it,” he said aloud for Pandey to hear on the other end of the phone.

Pandey now waited patiently for a person to come out with the green bag. If he was right the person had to be out in the next five minutes. This was the only exit so he was sure he would be able to nab the person, even if the latter decided to transfer the content to another bag, 3 crore wouldn’t be easy to miss.

“Did you get him?” asked Brijraj as he waited for the lift, it seemed to be taking for ever.

After a good ten minutes had passed, Pandey decided to investigate the place with caution. He peeked in but saw no one. He however noticed the green bag but there was something strange about it, it looked empty. He went inside and examined the bag, he was right, it was empty. Seems like Brijraj was not just the one with a backup plan.

He quickly moved his position to the hospital gate and waited to catch hold onto anyone suspicious exiting the hospital perhaps carrying a bag or sack of any kind.

Brijraj looked dismayed as he got into the lift, Pandey had not been able to find a suspect so far. At floor 9, a heavily pregnant woman got in, she was all smiles, she looked due any day. Meeting her seemed to bring back memories, his sweet Komal was delivered in this same hospital. 

It must have been the exhaustion, the fear and panic for he felt his eyes welling up. He was chasing money when he should have prioritised his daughter's safety. He felt ashamed for having a plan B in the first place. It had been a huge risk, he should have called it off.

At the hospital exit, he hoped to find Pandey. He was right as he found Pandey at the exit still scanning the crowd for suspects. 

Brijraj helped hail a cab for the pregnant woman from the lift before he went over to Pandey. He patted a furious Pandey on the back. Pandey hated criminals getting the better of him.

“Never mind Pandey. It was bad money anyway. Let it be” said Brijraj

“So you don’t want it back?” asked Pandey

“Don’t think I will get it. If you ever find it give it away to the one who finds it. Here, take this. It has all the serial numbers” said Brijraj as he handed over the list of serial numbers of the notes he had just given off as ransom.

“Really, are you sure?” asked Pandey

Alas, old habits die hard because Brijraj was quick to change his mind after he briefly thought about it, “On second thought, give 10 percent away, you can keep 10, give the rest back to me?”

“And whom should I give it away to?” asked Brijraj.

“Someone who needs it, whoever finds it, I don’t know, your call, just make sure they never speak a word of it” said Brijraj as he got into an auto back to the Park café where he had parked his ambassador.

A few kilometers away, the pregnant woman in the cab got a call.

“Ok, ok got it” she replied to the voice at the other end.

“Driver, change the route, please go to BRM Village” she said to the cab driver

At BRM village, the pregnant woman
exit and got into a pay and use toilet. Once inside, she pulled down her dress and pulled out the bundles of money she had stuffed in her fake pregnant belly. 

It wasn't easy to stuff and walk around with 15kg of notes but this wasn't her first time, the custom designed fake belly was an engineering marvel. 

She packed the bundles into a garbage bag and got out.

At BRM Village she went to villa 8 and dumped the bag in its
trash can. 

It had been a tricky maneouvre, the Seth knew Brijraj would employ his confidante Inspector Pandey to do some following around. 

The green bag was in fact a decoy. Urmila had already placed a plank blocking the chute on the 9th floor. 

As soon as the green bag hit the plank she pulled it out, dropped the money out, removed the plank and dropped the green bag down the chute. 

She then stuffed the money into her fake belly and made her way to the lift. 

But in his frenzy, Brijraj missed a glaring detail: the 9th and 10th floors had been shut down for months due to lack of funds. The deserted halls should have raised suspicion, but his panic blinded him.

Time: 3:00 PM