“Hello Chartered Sir, hows you?”
“Fine, you say? Met the doctor today?” I just opened a refrigerator adjusting cell phone in-between my ear and shoulder, took out orange juice to have alongside Cheese Burst Pizza I ordered from Dominos.
“No, was in no mood, I’ll go tomorrow.”
“C’mon Sharvari, what was in no mood? No good….! I think I will have to call you back here.”
“What is the Problem, Nevan? You don’t sound too good..!” When your mind is frantic, it needs just a little trigger to explode. I was fully aware of the fact that, cell phone and landline phones were wired and those assholes were listening to each and every word I spoke. Thus, I made sure this call was something I made from new mobile number I had purchased today only that too from terrace. I explained her everything, word to word, pretending to be unruffled.
“What the hell Nevan, Leave everything right now and come here to Ahmedabad. I don’t want you to become Bhagat Singh.”
“Cannot sweet heart, I have promised ACP Pradumna to help and if I ill leave like this these people might also qualm me.”
“So, what you want to do Nevan? Be Karamchand and spy around these bloody rascals.”
“C’mon Sharvari, I am already not feeling so good and don’t add to my problems.”
“But I am worried baby.”
“I know, I am not alone but sweetie – Mati- my friend is also there. Told you about her na. And ACP has also told me to give proper security.”
“Are you trying to give me dumb rationalization? This is one thing I have always notice, you listen to each and everything but in the end do what is on your mind.”
“That’s I am – typical Aquarian.” I heard a little chuckle on the call – relaxed me a little
“Now listen, don’t even dare utter a word of any of these on our routine calls –they are tapped. Pretend to be normal on those calls. For all these I will call you from this number.”
“Got it sir and please take care of yourself. I will be worried all the time.”
“You better take care of yourself Mrs. Nevan and I will be all well sweetie. It’s getting late – you better sleep now, I will also rest for a while now, need to get on work from tomorrow.”
“Take care honey, Good night, Love ya.”
“Love you too.” I put the mobile on the table had a deep bite on the pizza, sitting at the swing on the terrace, misplaced myself into the contemplations.
×××
“Respected sir, the case is clear as crystal. The Learned Assessing Officer has erred in interpreting the Section 14A of the Income Tax, 1961. If I dictate the same in the leman’s language; it provides any expenditure in relation to the income which has not suffered the taxation should not be allowed as the deductible expenditure. Am I correct, my friend?” I asked pointing at the Chartered Accountant fighting from the Department side.
“Absolutely my friend…!” He said, in a low tone.
“Yes, I accept the funds borrowed from the sister concern are not used in business by my client rather it is further advanced to the director of the company. But, my client has charged interest from the borrowing directors as well and same has been offered to the taxation. So, in no case interest paid by my client to the sister concern should be disallowed under the provisions of section 14A. So, I just plead to allow the said expenditure in the hand of the client, that’s it from our side sir.” I finished my presentation with the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Jaipur and sat on the bench with the satisfactory smile on my face, I signaled to the Sam sitting on the back bench – thumbs up. The case was almost won.
“We finished it far too soon, just forty five minutes and case won. You are going to rock in this taxation field Nevan, seriously. I am impressed man.”
“Thanks Sam, all good effects my good reporting head is catching on me.” I winked at him
“We have lots of time, whole day today. Let’s travel Jaipur a bit. What says?”
“Oh yes, I am in boss. Let’s visit place of Rajas, that is to say – Rajasthan.” Both of us chuckled, taxi driver too hinged in.
“Sir, Welcome to the Pink City of the Biggest State of Country. I am Shahrukh Khan – the best guide of this city.” A skinny young guy in checkered white colored skin fit shirt and a blue denim wearing dark glares and blue colored cap, calling him SRK appeared at the entrance of the Hawa Mahal.
“Shahrukh Khan, good hai ji..!!” All three of us; me, Sam and SRK smiled at it.
“Jaipur is the capital and largest city of the state of Rajasthan founded on 18th November, 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Sing, after whose name the city has been named. It is also known as the Pink City.” SRK welcomed us as we entered the princely premises of Hawa Mahal, built of red and pink sandstone it looked gargantuan. It was the palace built in the shape of the crown of Lord Krishna – as explained by SRK. It was just a five-storied palace but the exposure looked more colossal than that. It had nine hundred and fifty three jharokhas that is to say small windows that are decorated with convoluted latticework.
“The original intention of the lattice was to allow royal ladies to observe everyday life in the street without being seen, since they had to observe strict purdah (face cover).” SRK continued his expert (mugged-up) knowledge as continued to walk in the awe of the princely atmosphere. The tour continued at Amber fort, Jaigarh Fort, Jal Mahal and Jantar Mantar. The same ended with the dinner of Dal-Bati with SRK at his home. SRK was a very nice guy, though a bit above voluble sometimes but still a very amusing guy. Such a fantastic day had to end with some booze, so here we were at our hotel room, with ‘Absolute Vodka’ bottle on the table open. I am not a regular drinker, but Sam had some capacity. I just had two pegs while he finished the remaining bottle, end of a rather exhilarating day at the kingdom of the kings (i.e. Rajasthan) or not.
As my Cell-phone buzzed, I checked the time: it was 2:25 AM, I silently moved out of my hotel room. After checking out for any human presence in the nearby area with an eye of eagle, I silently opened the door of Toyota Innova parked opposite my hotel and sat in.
“How is he?” Mati was covered in as many woolen clothes as she had with her I guess.
“He is down, not gonna wake up till tomorrow morning for sure. Vodka and the sleeping pill is a fucking awesome combo to make someone sleep till late morning.”
“So, you sure he will be having those cabinet keys with him?”
“He keeps them with himself only, wherever he goes. You have person who ill make duplicate keys right now na?”
“Yes, he is ready. He says he only needs half an hour.”
“Good, then let’s get to work. I am moving in, you come in after ten; room no. 475. And make sure you utter no word in the room; you never know these assholes might have wired this room as well. ”
“I know Mr. Nevan Mehta; I am working on the case ages before you joined.”
“Oh yes Mrs. Shah, how can I forget that?”
I went in the room, started the flash light of my mobile phone. After a little while, Mati too joined in. The atmosphere was getting heftier; my palms had started to sweat even on the chilly night. I silently checked Sam’s pockets; as he was comfortably lost in in his dreamland. Mati looked at all of these twitchily, ‘nothing’ I signaled her. We silently moved towards his bag, mutely opened zip: came out a pair of clothes, shaving-kit, a porn magazine. Both of us smiled on the fact that this guy keeps Porn Magazine with him like a school kid.
“F**k you guys.” Our hearts skipped a bit, terror took over the smile on our face the moment Sam shouted in a very high tone. Both of us turned towards bed at one time, he was still sleeping. He was speaking while sleeping. I had a sigh of respite, I was still breathing heavily so was Mati, was able to hear our breaths on this silent night. I sat for a while taking the support of the wall to calm down a bit, Mati held my hand in fear. And at the end of all we had nothing; keys were not there in his bag as well. In disillusionment I looked around the room, to anticipate where he can put his keys, and there was the jackpot. He had hung his blazer on the wall exact opposite to where we were sitting; keys were there in the veiled pocket in there.
“Now you finish the work fast and get the keys back fast. Keep the duplicate keys with you, will collect from you in Delhi only.”
“I will be back in half an hour, take care..!” I silently waved to her, as she zoomed away on a still- uninhabited Jaipur Street, tower clock somewhere in the heart of the city announced it was 3:00 in the morning by striking three glockenspiels.
×××
“Nevan, get ready we are going to the conference room. “
“Oyeee, its Friday…!” I said as both Sam and me tittered on the intercom, Fridays were the weekly meet day, with Jigish sir. All the Sr. Executive usually remained tensed on the day, coz a little mistake and they were censured by him.
“Sam, what about those land problems of Kalhar Golf Club? It was discussed in last weekly meet, still not solved?”
“Sir, Nevan will throw light on the same, he is the one working on the same….”
“Who is the Sr. Executive Sam, you or Nevan? Who should be answerable to me, you or him? Yes, Nevan what is happening with the same?”
“The actual problem is sir, they are paying Rs.10 per square yard of the land to the agriculturist as the additional consideration as mentioned in the sale deed. Now if we look at the definition of Commission under section 194H of the Income Tax Act…!” I just passed on the print out of Section 194H to Jigish Sir to have a look at.
“The said payment that Kalhar Golf is making to the agriculturists will be considered to be commission under section 194H and as the TDS has not been deducted the said expenditure will be disallowed u/s. 40(a)(ia) of the income tax act.” Jigish sir was listening to me with full attention, I continued.
“Further even bigger problem is that the payments to the agriculturists are made in cash by them which actually can’t be done as the said land is held by the golf club as the stock in trade and not capital asset. Thus, the said purchase will be disallowed under section 40A (3) of the income tax act.”
“These are the problems Nevan, what are the solutions, I want solutions. You know those son of bitches na, you have met them right?”
“Yes sir, have met them.”
“Then, they have held our payments till we clear this matter with ITAT, Ahmedabad. Finish this ASAP.”
“Yes sir, I am actually gathering various supreme court and high court pronouncements on the same matter, the solution of the case if any is there, then it will be on your table tomorrow morning.”
“Good Job.” Said Jigish sir, I could see the sigh of reprieve on Sam’s face as well.
“Nevan, you got any citation yet? It’s already 8:30, my wife will kick my ass out of house, I promised her a dinner tonight.”
“Not any strong one yet Sam. We can do one thing, if it’s okay; give me the keys to your cabin for today. I will seat in till late and will find some good one. My PC doesn’t have this much advanced version of Taxman, so I can’t do at my workplace. You leave and save your ass being kicked by bhabhi.”
“Oh, you are so nice Nevan, may god give associate like you to each sr. associate.”
“F**k this nicety Sam; I am gonna f**k you people. That is the only reason why I want to stay here. Thank you Sam.”
“You know what she has learned these days, if I don’t remain nice to her or like today don’t take her to movie or dinner after promising, she doesn’t let me in the bedroom that day. Sleep separate till some week or so and then cajole her by giving some good gift and then she lets me enter in the bedroom. Shouldn’t this be called – Emotional Atyachar?”
“This is called Vengeance, revenge of a wife.” We both laughed for a while on the topic, and then Sam left for the home. Slowly and steadily – office had started emptying. People started going home, and the building was on silent mode within half an hour. I took out the duplicate keys of that cabinet, which Mati had handed me over yesterday only. I took the bunch of A4 sized papers from my bag, which too I had purchased. I didn’t wanted to use stationery from office; sudden increase in use of papers might make them suspicious.”
“This is a very perilous job, Nevanbhai. I was almost caught today..!!” The room was dark and suffocating. A small fan on the ceiling was working overtime, tediously. The corner of the room was crammed with the bunch of papers, Xerox copies of the suspicious files.
“Why? What happened Dhimahi bhabhi?” Mrs. Dhimahi Shukla, wife of Rutvij Shukla, the associate before me, who was brutally killed by those persons, was helping me getting the files of associates other than Sam. She had taken job, with help of Mati with the outsourcing agency – who were given the contract to scan all the documents and store the same into our Database. While doing all that, she managed to snip off a few files from other Sr. associates as well.
“Actually, while on job today, I was in Saurabh Pillai’s office. His Secretary was with me, but she had call of her boyfriend and she went out keeping the cabinet open. I quickly got two files, copied them and kept them back. I became greedy and took the third one and just when I finished copying and was about to put it back, Pillai came in and I was nearby that dangerous cabin.”
“Oh, f**k? Then what? I hope he didn’t question you much? Did he?”
“He did, what the hell are you doing in storage area?”
“But I survived by telling him, as his secretary was out, was putting the files back in.”
“Phew………!!”
With the coalition between me and bhabhi, we had managed to get about hundred and fifty files just within the period of one month. We had hired a one BHK Flat just next to our office, without anyone knowing it not even Mati, to store all the files. We had quite a few files now, end was looming.
×××
“Mati, Nevan here.”
“Yes Nevan, bolo….!!”
“I want to meet you, right now.”
“I am working Nevan.”
“See you in ten at Zen’s Café; it’s important.” I hung up the call, saying this. My mind was not at armistice since last night. A little combat of contemplations was going within, which weren’t ready to arrive at ceasefire situation. Delhi’s late evening was at full fledge, people were hurrying on the roads so were my thoughts, sitting on the corner table in the Zen’s café.
“What is the concern? Why you called me so urgently over here?”
“You have a seat first, what will you have?”
“Speak up, Nevan. I don’t want to have anything.”
“At ease Mati, why are you so much fretful? Cool down..!”
“You always scare the hell out of my ass.”
“Two Cappuccinos please; anything to eat..!” Mati nodded in negative, as I put my order with the Captain in black and white uniform in front of me, he left after noting it in his notepad with a pleasant smile on his face.
“Now Mati, give me an answer; Can I trust YOU?”
“What kind of question is this Nevan?”
“Answer with YES or NO Mati, and yes this question I am not asking to the Legal Advisor of the Crime Investigation Dept, this I am asking to a very old acquaintance of mine.”
“On any given day, my answer is yes, anytime for you, what is the matter Nevan? Speak up…!”
“Take this..!” I put the set of keys in her hands.
“What is this?”
“You must be knowing, I have put a condition in front of ACP. That Firstly I should be given a safe way to the Shimla and should be given a little job in one of the jam factories over there then only I will hand over the evidences. Government can do that much for me, if I am doing these much.”
“Yes.”
“These are the keys to the premises where I have stored so far procured hundred and fifty files.”
“Ahh……”
“I am not finished yet…!” She wanted to say something; I cut her half in her words.
“And in case they found out, I am working for you people and they screw me. Atleast you will be having documents to confront these people.”
“What are you saying Nevan? You sound bit low, tell me what is the problem?”
“Don’t know why Mati, but till last evening I am not feeling well. The only thing scaring me is, if I will be killed, I don’t want to leave you people empty-handed, like last time.”
“Don’t say all these Nevan. Lots of people need you, you are going nowhere.”
“Still Mati, I have already asked Dhimahi Bhabhi not to come now. She has done her job. Only a few files of Sam are left to be copied.”
“Hmm..!”
“Day after tomorrow, I am going to Ahmedabad for some work. After that I will be giving ACP sir all the documents. Address of the place is known to bhabhi, in case I can’t give you the documents.”
“Fir se wohi..! C’mon Nevan, what has happened to you? As far as I knew you were the most optimistic person I had ever met.”
“Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.”
“You and your one-liners, I am tackling since so long.”
“I will leave now Mati, not at all in mood to argue as of now. Just wanted to give these keys to you, and you please take care.”
“Jaxay, come up; its urgent.”
“What is the problem James?”
“You come up.”
“Yes, James.” Jaxay hurriedly rushed up to the top floor
“F**k your associate of the year, I told you.”
“What is the issue James? Tell me in detail.”
“There are reports from Jaipur, when Nevan and Sam went there last month that a girl made the duplicate set of keys at three-thirty in the morning. And that extra-marital love Ms. Mati was also spotted in the Jaipur around that time only.”
“So?”
“So, I doubt that it was your f**king Nevan and Mati who got hold of those keys of Sam’s cabinet and it was the one which was duplicated by them.”
“You are just supercilious James, aren’t you?”
“After that in last one month, cartridge of first floor’s copier is replaced twice; I don’t think it’s that laden work season.”
“So what are you indicating at?”
“I checked Nevan’s attendance in last month, out of thirty days he sat till two-three in the morning on ten occasions. Does he have that much work?”
“So, you wanna say, seating till late he got hold of Sam’s file using that duplicate keys, he copied them and now he is having confidential information of our files.”
“Exactly.”
“Still it’s all about ifs and buts. And I can’t kill this guy just based on probabilities.”
“Don’t worry, you will have your confirm answer in two hours.”
“How?”
“We have contacts in CID as well; you forgot we got to know of Rutvij as well.”
“Try and make it fast, I don’t wanna wait till horses have left the stable.”
“Hello, James here. You told me Pradumna is doing something big; get me the info of that in two hours.”
.. .. .. … …. …. … … …
“Open your mouth, I will fill it with money. “
.. .. .. … …. … …. …
“Five Millions done, two hours you have.” And the call hung up.
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