"Return of the Memons: A Pyrrhic Victory" continues…

That it was an attempt by the baddies to put a spanner in Government of India’s works was amply clear to Shafi. He drove leisurely and let them follow him, occasionally trying to shake them off, while Suresh sat panicking on the rear seat.

Shafi took a sharp turn and headed for a shopping mall where he dropped Suresh. He instructed Suresh to enter the mall and exit from the rear, where he would be waiting for him. The pursuers were now in a fix. Their quarry was inside the mall but his car had left. Not knowing whether to follow the car or to go after the quarry, they decided to stay put with a few of them entering the mall to look for Suresh. Meanwhile, Suresh had emerged from the rear exit, got into Shafi’s car and driven to Air India’s Office for collecting the tickets.

Little did he know that further surprises awaited him. To his utter shock, the Air India officials informed him that the bookings had been cancelled. Apparently,someone claiming to be a member of his family, travelling with him to Delh,, had called and got the reservation cancelled. On enquiry, his relatives denied having done any such thing. Now it was more than confirmed that he was indeed being trailed and every dirty trick in the book being adopted to thwart Memons’ return to India. Clearly, one of his pursuers, pretending to be a Memon, had called Air India and cancelled the booking. The news shook me and I decided to share it with my bosses, little realising that I was committing a grave error.

For totally misplaced reasons the bosses went into a tizzy. They thought this was the beginning of a ‘first class diplomatic situation’. A high-level meeting was called by Director Vijaya Rama Rao at his residence on Tughlaq Lane, where I was made to feel like a fool who had launched on a far- fetched and ill-conceived misadventure, destined to ruin the fair name of the CBI.

To be continued…