Murder Most Foul - 15
by Bala
(Mumbai)
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Story so far
Bollywood's reigning queen Sudha's ex husband Sudhir goes missing. Speculations rise as to whether she alone, or she along with the upcoming actor Pritam, have a hand in his missing. Sudhir's mother gives a statement to the press that she does not suspect Sudha. So where is Sudhir? Prior to that Sudha and Sudhir meet in a musical program, become popular singers, Sudha becomes a star, they get married secretly, he gets a job in Bangalore, they meet secretly on a few occasions and get bad press reports.
Sudhir's bosses get upset and ask him for explanation, he tells them that he is married to Sudha. To end all speculations, she calls for a press meet, where she announces their secret marriage 2 years ago and says that they would get married again in a public ceremony. But after their well attended marriage in a 5 star hotel, they drift apart within some months, due to differences which take them to their divorce. Chapter 15 The name Ganga Ram may evoke respect in the minds of many of us Indians since it is a combination of two of India's cultural identities.
The river Ganges and Lord Ram!
But the person holding that name was far, far away from anything respectable. In fact he was a history sheeter in Mumbai police records and as per computer Boolean language he was either seen or never seen for a few months at a time.
Meaning he was seen in and around his surroundings whenever he was not in police lock up and jail following his arrest and conviction against either a few pick pocket cases or drug related cases!
Every criminal has a modus operandi - that is what the police says.
In his case he used to show his knife skills only or use his wrestling skills or use a chloroform soaked kerchief or a combination of all of them as the case may be....
On the roads he was an expert in displaying his knifing skills.
Most of his victims had never suspected him to be harmful in anyway and used to answer any innocent question from him on the spot thinking that perhaps this village worker did not know what to do at that particular moment and wished to help him!
But once he was satisfied that he had his victim under his control he would use his expertise in unexpectedly whipping out his knife from his waist and threatening him and without any further provocation from him, the terrified victim would immediately take out his purse and throw it towards him if he promised him not to harm him in any way!
In such cases he would just warn him to remain wherever he was or to move him to a place where he could keep an eye on him by waving his hand holding his menacing knife, while he emptied his purse.
If the victim thought that he could easily manage such road side knifers having seen many Amitabh Bachchan or Salman Khan movies, Ganga Ram would quickly run through his mental gallery of different wrestling tricks he had so meticulously picked up during his various training bouts in his native UP akhadas, decide on which wrestling grip would come to his help in stunning his victim on this particular occasion and utilize it to make his victim not only financially poorer but also psychologically traumatized.
After all there is a lot of difference between a road side loafer and an expert like Ganga Ram and if the victim had not understood it he had no problem in making his victim understand it and teaching him to remember the lesson for a long, long time!
But if the victim was more daring and was "stupid enough" to really think that he could defeat him in his fight with him in spite of his wrestling expertise, Ganga Ram would take out his chloroform soaked kerchief as his last resort, press it on to the victim's nose and finish the job quickly.
Once he pocketed their valuables he would throw his victims' fainted bodies on to the sides of the roads so as to make sure that no other persons had a chance to know what had happened there and flee from the scene. As long as luck was with him, he could escape but on a few occasions with luck deserting him he used to get caught by the police on the basis of the alarms raised by the passers by on the spot.
With such pick pocket adventures he used to get only small cash which was not satisfactory for him since he was an ambitious man.
So he came in contact with certain drug traffickers with whose help and guidance he soon became an expert charas, ganja and other narcotropic drug traffickers.
Whenever he got a chance to transport a bulk quantity of such drugs, he got a big amount of money which was in unimaginable proportion in comparison with his pick pocket earnings and hence he was always ready to work with the drug cartel as the last link of the delivery chain.
He used to distribute small packs on the "retail" to his various "customers" including TV and film actors, college students and other junkies or deliver big sacks and boxes to bigger parties.
***** To be continued.....
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