"Operation Desert Safari" continues...

I drove through the village slowly, looking around, but all in vain. I proceeded towards Shivalik, another South Delhi colony. Both Adhchini and Shivalik are in close proximity of Begumpur and many flats there matched quite a few clues given by the hostage. Both localities lie in the air-funnel, with planes flying over-head frequently. Ruins of mosque-like structures, as mentioned by the hostage Thekkat Sidhdhique, were aplenty in their vicinity. In almost sheer desperation, I parked my car and scoured the entire area on foot including Sadhana Enclave, again located in that general area.
Several second-storey flats overlooked dome-shaped structures and quite a few of them had flowerpots on their terraces but some other vital details like presence of green net or a telephone booth nearby were missing. My anxiety was rising by the minute.

I decided to drive to the Lodhi Colony office of the Special Cell to meet
up with Rajbir and take a fresh stock of the situation. I found two other officers of the Delhi Police present in his office: Inspector Rajendra Bakshi of the Crime Branch, the Begumpur resident I have already spoken of and Inspector Harcharan Verma, then posted as a Station House Officer in one of the police stations of South Delhi. Both of them were assisting us
without keeping their superiors informed. They were doing so purely out of their goodwill for
Rajbir and a bit of respect for me. Had they sought permission of their superiors, it would never have come. I once again stressed upon them that it was now time to involve the Delhi Police and get the local police and Police Control Room Vans to conduct house-to-house searches in the area. This had become imperative, I felt, as we were getting nowhere. If anything were to go
wrong, we would be blamed for keeping all information to ourselves and not involving the Delhi Police to widen the scope of the searches.

To be continued...