“Can you give us the details of this company?” I asked
“Sorry, dude. Client confidentiality,” said Ranvijay regretfully.
“Well, what if I gave you the names of a few companies? If any of them ring a bell, could you persuade your client to talk to us? If we pool our information, it might strengthen both our causes,” I explained, sliding a sheet of paper over to Ranvijay, with the names of the shell companies that were buying up land near the border.
He stared at the names inscrutably for a few seconds before he rose.
“Excuse me while I call my client,” he said, as he strode out of the room.
He returned with a smile on his face, and for the first time, I felt we were going somewhere.
“It’s done! He’s just sending over written permission to share pertinent details of this case with you.”
“How is Sanjay tied to all this?” I asked.
Ranvijay nodded to Raksha, and she went to the large whiteboard in the centre of the room and wrote the names of a few companies on the board.
“All of these are layered or nesting shell companies, but when you get to the companies in the innermost tier, the names Sanjay Jhala or Sanjeev Jhala appear on the director’s lists for all of them.”
“Sanjeev Jhala is Nilanjana’s father,” I explained. “But how can they afford to buy up all this land? The Jhalas have always been penniless.”
“Well, they are rolling in money these days. I’ve been surveilling the family for a few weeks now, and they’ve boughttwo Fortuners and three Defenders recently,” said Raksha, pulling out another folder from her big backpack. “This is the latest surveillance report that I brought along because I wanted to hand it in to the boss. But I’m sure it will be useful for your case as well, sir.”
She dropped it while placing it on the table, and a few photographs fell out.
“What are those pictures?” I asked.
“Surveillance images, sir. This one is at a nightclub in Jaipur. This one is at his girlfriend’s house. And that’s at a shady dhaba near the highway,” she said, pointing at the images before she began to put them away.
“Hold it,” I said urgently. “Can I see the third image, please?”
She handed it over, and I stared at the image of the man sitting across from Sanjay at the dhaba. It was the same man in Col. Bhagat’s photograph outside Amer Fort. And it was the same face that had haunted my nightmares ever since Mani died.
“That is Nadeem Qureshi,” I announced softly, and the others leaned forward with interest.
“What the hell is Sanjay doing with Qureshi?” asked Veer.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” I replied softly.
“I have more pictures of them together,” said Raksha hurriedly. “They were together all of last week. I trailed them all over Jaipur. They visited Johari Bazaar and Bapu Bazaar at night quite a few times.”
“Qureshi is planning something big for Gandhi Jayanti, and the markets get very dense footfall during public holidays. We’d better warn Col. Bhagat,” I said, getting to my feet.
I scanned the pictures and sent them to Col. Bhagat with an email detailing everything Raksha had just told me. Hopefully, his team could catch any signs of trouble long before the day arrived.
“Is Qureshi staying with Sanjay?” I asked, as I typed.
“No, sir. They’ve always met in public places like the dhaba and a chai tapri near Johari Bazaar.”
Just then, there was a sharp knock at the door, and Navya’s nanny came running into the conference room.
“Hukum, your Bhabhi Sa was here just now. She snatched Navya Baisa from my arms and drove off towards the forest. And Meher Baisa has gone after them.”
CHAPTER 19
MEHER
Iwas setting up trestle tables on the terrace for lunch when Navya’s nanny came running inside.
