"Operation Desert Safari" continues...

We continued to scour the area, checking house after house, as planes
kept flying overhead, only to remind us that we were close yet not quite there. In most houses,
young students preparing for entrance examination to the coveted Indian Institutes of
Technology were staying as paying guests. They were rudely woken up by our past-midnight knocks. We decided to call off the searches at the break of the first light; sleepless and disappointed, not able to comprehend why we could not reach our target despite seemingly
specific and reasonably pin-pointed leads.

Once home, I tried to snatch a wink or two but to no avail. I worried endlessly for the man who
was hostage to desperate trans-national criminals. At the same time, I must admit, I fretted for my own reputation, which, I felt, was in grave jeopardy. I asked myself: Had I, on this occasion,
bitten more than I could chew? In case anything went wrong and the abducted man was found
killed somewhere, would it not bring a bad name to the CBI and to me? Imaginary fears had
begun to get the better of me.

Ahmed Koya, Thekkat's elder brother, called me at about 11 AM the same morning. Thekkat had been made to speak to his family again by the kidnappers and, in the course of the conversation, slipped in more clues. Among the leads given by him were the presence of white plastic flower-pots and a green net on the terrace of the premises where he was being kept. Some clothes had been kept in the open to dry. A couple of mosques with their round domes were visible in the vicinity.

Ahmed Koya made it very clear to me that his brother was under tremendous duress. Whatever his kidnapped brother was conveying to him was quite garbled and whatever Koya was telling us was based on what he could make out of their conversation.

To be continued...