What the Doctor Ordered Continues ……….

His conversation with me, still etched in my memory, went something like this: ‘Sahib, apne kuch jaante jo tumko batana kya?’ (Shall I tell you something that may be useful to you), he asked. When I said he may, he asked me, ‘Kya aap AP Express ka bomb dhamaka case dekhte?’ (Are you looking into the AP Express blast case?) When I replied in the affirmative, he said, ‘Bombay me ek jagah hai Mominpura. Wahan ek doctor hai jiska naam apun ko nahee maloom. Par uska khairat ka ek hospital hai Mominpura mein. Woh mastermind hai, usko dhoondo, woh aap ko sab bata sakta hai.’ (There is a place in Mumbai called Mominpura where a Muslim doctor resides. He runs a charitable hospital but is the mastermind behind the blasts. Please look for him.)
The information was rather sketchy, but I had to make the most of it. The first logical step was to share it with my field officers in Mumbai. That would require the exchange of information in real time between Satish Jha—my able junior colleague and superintendent of police (SP) in Mumbai— and myself. Mobile telephony had not reached India as yet. To add to my woes, even the subscriber trunk dialling (STD) facility was not available on Gabbar Singh’s office phone. (In those days, official telephones, whether at home or at work, were provided with the STD facility only if they were for the use of very senior-ranking officers. I also remember that a common practice to avoid the misuse of the facility was to keep the telephone instrument locked or to protect its use by means of a code that was known only to the officers.)


To be Continued ………….