The Highway Mafia by Suchitra S. Rao

Author:Suchitra S. Rao [Rao, Suchitra S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781946869418
Published: 2018-06-21T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

The Black Sheep

It was 1:00 AM, 10th February, 2013. Arjun was fast asleep when his mobile rang. It was Dan calling. He stared at the phone groggily; he wasn’t sure if he was awake or still dreaming.

It rang a second time a while later; Arjun came to his senses slowly and saw the time. ‘What would he want from him at this hour?’ He reluctantly answered, “Hello?”

“Arjun my boy, you did it!” said Dan.

Arjun was too sleepy to comprehend anything. They hadn’t spoken since the documentary was screened. He thought of calling Dan a couple of times but dismissed the idea and proceeded with his work. After couple of minutes of silence Arjun said, “Dan, I don’t get it.”

“You have done something path-breaking! All the hue and cry you made in the media caught the attention of the CM and she has ordered the highway police to catch the trucks tonight. The police have sought The Habitat’s help so we are going to show them where the control room is present.

The top cop tells me that there have been about twenty trucks caught so far across Tamil Nadu. I need two people to come with me and I thought you would be ideal.”

This news took some time to digest. But once Arjun realized what a boon this could be in the fight against cattle trafficking, he sat up, “Okay, where should I meet you?”

Exactly an hour later, they met on the Maduravoyal highway. Sreedhar was there as well. They were soon joined by the police and together they headed towards Kavaraipettai where the heart of the mafia operation was. After an hour of driving they reached the place; Dan had never been to this place but he had a spy who gave him a view into the workings of the mafia.

It was an old abandoned-looking house. There was algae all over the walls along with climbers and creepers. They could see men moving around inside through the windows that spilled yellow light into the night.

The police surrounded the building. They had told Dan, Arjun and Sreedhar to stay inside the car as they might have to fire if necessary. One of the cops knocked on the door. A massive guy with a ponytail opened the door. The cop pointed his gun at him, “You are under arrest.”

The seamless operation was done in half an hour. The cops had caught four other guys, confiscated phones, laptops and other crucial evidence.

One of the cops came up to Arjun. “You must be Arjun Krishnan. I saw you on TV.” He nodded. The cop continued. “I am Gautham, Superintendent of Police, Tiruvallur district.”

“Nice meeting you, sir.”

“Great work, man! These guys have been really cruel; I have seen trucks like these and think of catching them, but you know these guys are working with higher authorities and it becomes difficult for us to fight them. But today, the CM has ordered us to capture all the trucks and I didn’t know about the involvement of other regulatory bodies in all this.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.