"Operation Desert Safari" continues...

As the Hyundai Accent sped through Delhi’s chaotic traffic, Thekkat was lost in his thoughts. So deep were his reveries that neither did the city’s notorious smog make any impression on his olfactory senses nor was he appalled by the boorish driving of Delhi’s motorists. As Delhi’s landscape whizzed by, snapshots of his own life flashed back in his mind. He pinched himself to remember the gifts he planned to buy for his dear wife.

In less than half an hour, the car reached a well-appointed bungalow in a posh South
Delhi colony. As he stepped into the house, he was to receive a rude shock. Expecting to see businessmen in well-cut dark suits with designer ties, he saw scruffy looking goons surround
him. They pushed and manhandled him showering choicest expletives, most of which he was hearing for the first time. When he tried to retaliate, one of them pulled out a handgun and
pointed it at him. Thekkat guessed the gun-wielding rogue to be the leader of the pack who informed him that he was kidnapped. The captive was informed that a ransom of $ 2 million
(over 12 crores) must be paid if he wanted to be set free. Thekkat was quick to realize that his
bragging publicly of his non-existent affluence was coming home to roost. When he said he
didn’t have that kind of money, he was beaten mercilessly. He was made to speak to his wife in
Abu Dhabi conveying the message of his having been kidnapped and the ransom demanded for
his release. In minutes Thekkat’s life had changed; the castles he had built in the air had come
crashing down.

On March 12, the day following the kidnapping, Thekkat’s distraught family members met with KC Singh, India's Ambassador in Abu Dhabi, seeking his help. The Ambassador promptly took a written complaint from the victim’s wife and faxed it to RK Raghavan, the then Director, CBI.

To be continued...