"Operation Desert Safari" continues...

He was quick to sense my serious apprehensions and did his bit to assuage them. He said, if nothing else worked, one of the gang members was already on our radar and was going to meet his Vasant Kunj girl-friend soon.
We could easily pick him up at a time of our choosing and extract details of the place where the hostage was being kept. His sense of confidence and calm did its bit to make me think positively. I returned home, a trifle reassured, yet restless and apprehensive.
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An early morning call the following day from Koya reiterating his family's decision to pay $ 700,000 jolted me out of bed. As per the deal with the kidnappers, Moya was to travel to Dubai in the afternoon and deliver the ransom amount to a money-changer. There was no way I could dissuade him from doing so. I advised him that he was free to proceed to Dubai from Abu Dhabi
but before delivering the money he should check with me once again. Maybe, there was some
development at our end by then. He mockingly told me he had lost all hope and that enough was enough. How could I convince him that not only was I totally empathetic with every member of the Siddhique family but almost equally concerned about Thekkat’s well-being. More importantly, I was anxious to rescue him from the clutches of the kidnappers at the earliest?

It was October 18th, 2001, a Sunday, but certainly not a day to laze around at home or play golf. A bundle of nerves that I was, I once again set out on my own looking for the elusive flat. I thought of checking out Adhchini village in South Delhi where I had seen mosques with domes while conducting an operation in 1995, which had led to the arrest of Jagtar Singh Tara, the first accused to be arrested in the sensational assassination case of Sardar Beant Singh, the then Chief Minister of Punjab.

To be continued...