Story of their Assassins continues ………….

Here I was, face- to-face with one of the most dreaded criminals of the time, wanted in several cases, one of which I was intimately privy to. I had to do something fairly quickly as within minutes both he and I would be flying off, not necessarily to the same destination. I was fidgety and restless while he was carefree and unconcerned. He was obviously not aware that a CBI officer had spotted him. Not that it would have mattered. After all, he was an MP and someone police officers usually kept away from. I stepped outside the lounge to speak to Neelu Babu, a Special Branch officer of the Bihar Police deployed at the airport, who had come to see me off.

‘Who is the man who just walked into the lounge?’ I enquired.
‘Sir, he is the same person you think he is,’ replied Neelu. By now I could feel the adrenaline rush. The only other flight taking off at that time had been announced and passengers had begun boarding. MS and his crony were still sitting coolly in the lounge.
That meant he was on the same flight as I was and we were both Delhi-bound.

I asked Neelu if I could use a phone with STD facility. He quickly took me to a booth nearby, installed in an open cabin without any privacy. But I had to alert my counterparts in the Delhi Police Special Cell who were investigating the case MS was wanted in. I called up Rajbir Singh, an ACP in the Special Cell, and informed him that I was taking the Indian Airlines flight to Delhi that day and that he should meet me at the Delhi airport with a small police team. I didn’t wish to take MS’s name within hearing distance of anyone lest the word leak out. My message to Rajbir was cryptic but clear enough for him to come prepared for some action.

To be continued ………….