“Devil Wears ‘Khaadi’ (The Unmasking of Romesh Sharma)” continues…

Ramesh had rented out his house to his first cousin Ashok on company lease as Ashok Malik worked for a corporate house as a top-level manager. However, when Ashok retired, the company would naturally not extend the lease.

Ashok then wanted Ramesh to sell the property to him which was not acceptable to Ramesh. As subsequent investigation by the local police revealed, Ashok approached Romesh Sharma to twist his cousin’s arm so that Ramesh sold the house to him (Ashok). As the search was in progress, I saw Romesh Sharma arrive outside his house and come charging in. Strongly built with a muscular body, toned over years with weight training in his private gym, he was like a raging bull. He enquired angrily of the uniformed police officers as to what was going on. He was directed to speak with me, the man behind the raid. He approached me as a ferocious and hungry carnivore would its prey. In that brief moment I had to react and the reaction came naturally to me. Here was a monster of a man, with overwhelming evidence of his crimes strewn all over, attempting to browbeat the police. I gave him a tight slap, perhaps the tightest I could muster, and, lo and behold, the man was on the floor. . Dragging him to his first floor bedroom I showed him all the property papers recovered from under his bed’s mattress. The man realized that his game was up and the next minute he was at my feet begging for mercy.

He was then taken to Police Station Hauz Khas where a case was registered on the complaint of H. Suresh Rao, relating to the helicopter matter. Romesh Sharma was arrested.

Obviously, the arrest was big news. In the police, perhaps as in other spheres of life, a common human foible is to take credit for a piece of good work when it belongs to someone else. .

To be continued....