Blackmail (Swaroop Agaskar)

THE DECCAN CHRONICLE
Pune, 11th April 1999
From our reporter:
Its been eighteen months since the untimely death of Mr. Suraj Khambatta, Owner of one of the richest single owned industries in the country ( Khambatta group of Companies). Investigations by the police and media into the death of the young industrialist had been carried out for weeks. The investigations proved that the notion of people and colleagues, that he was one of the most clean and straight forward entrepreneur of the newer generation, were not….

11th November 1997. 7:00 pm
I looked at the lights of the city from my penthouse,, gradually becoming brighter as the skies started to darken. I took a deep breath and slowly closed my eyes………..

11th November 1997. 4:30 pm

"Blackmailed?", She just mouthed those words, no sound seemed to escape her lips. The next words were barely a whisper," For three years?". I could see the pain in the eyes when she lifted them to look at me. It was a new emotion I could see in a her eyes, which over the years had displayed a rainbow of feelings. This time it seemed there was a plea in them, almost begging that all this was a bad dream. Her eyes went back to the stack of pictures. Her face showing both the joy as she seemed to remember the moments captured in the pictures and also the fright of the fact that the relation which ended three years earlier was never discreet, as we both had thought. Thought by me for three years and by her for six years, exactly the span of my marriage.

She had to leave three years back, for a job opportunity, being in touch only through emails. But, the fact that she was back I town just days before what now felt to be the end of my agony, was heart-warming. To think it all started months after she left and was to end when she arrived was almost amusing to me.
"How?"
"What?" I replied, the train of my thought had carried me far away from the sparsely filled restaurant we were sitting in.
"How did this thing start?, that's what I asked you", she said.
"Oh Yes, it was some months after you left. I received copies of the pics that you are holding right now in my mail. A note said that , the pictures would be all over the town if I don't do as they say. Business, reputation, and most importantly you, made me give into the demand"
" Business, reputation and me?…you sure you didn't forget marriage over here, or just embarrassed to say it before me?," mocking eyes, I saw. There was something about those eyes I could never put a finger on all these years
" Yes, don't want to lie, Marriage too, I think the reputation part covered it"
" Would have hurt her, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, she is a good woman"
"I bet, tell me something, you seen this blackmailer?, I mean a man or woman, well, for all you know he might be someone close to you"
"No, I have seen him, always handed over the cash to him, I think he is a amateur photographer who stumbled on us and just my luck that I am a well known face." I said as I tapped my duffel bag which held a fortune by the perception of a even a well to do person." I was too scared to go to the police"
"I am so sorry, that I am the reason for all your trouble." she replied as she placed he hand over mine
"But then, even if I knew this was to happen , I would still have gone ahead just to share the wonderful times with you."
"How sweet of you to say that, So tell me, you sure its going to be the final..er .ransom should I say?" inquisitive eyes.
"Yes, because he has to go abroad it seems, and he is asking for a fortune sum this time, though all there years I already paid him twice as much. But he wants to handover the negatives to me and plans to leave for good. Lets see, I got no choice"
"What time are you meeting him?"
"In 15 minutes from now, in fact I need to be going, I just called you up to tell you, now that its all going to be over , I don't mind telling you"
"Ok I have to leave too, tomorrow we will meet, same time over here" she said, "all the best"
"Ok', I said 'Hey, what do you do nowadays?"
"Thank god, you asked, I specialize in investments on a long term with high end returns. Talking of investment, your wife the one who manages your finances? She is an MBA isnt she?. How come she never got a whiff of the seemingly high amounts you are siphoning off to this Blackmailer?"
"Well, I am just plain lucky , I guess" I said
"God, I sure hope so, bye see you soon"
"Bye , Neha" I told her, "Neha Gupta," I said to myself

11th November 1997. 6:10 pm

"Here sir, and sorry for all the trouble I may have put you through and also for the inconvenience" He said as he handed over the negatives. Just ten minutes had passed since we met and started talking. And the deal was over. The realization that it all had ended, made me angry towards the young man who sat before me.
"To hell with you, I said, some nerve saying sorry, I don't even want to see your face again"
"Relax , sir, A true enemy is better than a False friend and if you don't believe the truth in the statement, Turn around"
"Neha?, you?" I said it before I turned around to look at her, as I caught her unmistakable perfume.
" I told you, will see you soon" she had cold eyes now. Oh yes, an actresses eyes, now I remembered what I had been missing for years, those were trained eyes, trained to display emotions, to fool people.
"Why Neha?"
"Well, I told you, I specialize in long term investment, you are the one." She laughed "Anyways meet my husband, Rahul Khanna".
Second shock in the last few minutes. I almost slumped in my chair as I realized what an idiot I have been. "You said long term, three years is not long term is it?". Still, somehow retaining my sense of humour.
"Hey, I am the expert over here, not you, you may not know it but you are long term" she giggled.
"One question" I said.
" I know , the million dollar question", she said , " that why did I have to bring out the fact that I was behind all this, I could have just taken the money and walked out of your life"
"Yes" I said.
"Because, as I said you are a long term investment I told you, and when the investment is en-cashed, I believe that the certificate has to be destroyed"
"What do you mean by that?" I felt a cold chill running down my spine.
"Firstly, I wanted to let you know that I never loved you, and that all you meant to me was money, in fact I hated you for being so filthy rich. Secondly, I wanted to tell you myself, that even though you have the negatives with you, scanned copies on CD's have been sent to each and every newspaper in the town. Tomorrow, you will be more famous my dear, but sadly, for all wrong reasons. Business, reputation and me all gone down the drain. And yes marriage, I forgot marriage, but I didn't forget sending blown-up copies to your wife along with details of payments made by you at your Delhi residence , where she is put up right now, wont take long for her to put two and two together, right?. Also I wanted to see you as man who has lost everything, If you think you are a mess right now, tomorrow will be hell for you. Tomorrow, the papers, the whole city, the country, for that matter the whole world is going to stink of you, the respectable and straight businessman, will go to dogs and the worst is that, even you wife wont stand by you, when she realizes you had been going on for three years, a deliberate doing on your part, not a mistake."
I was devastated, my whole world had turned topsy-turvy in a matter of minutes Suddenly everything that meant all to me was gone, all the years of work, grit, struggle to reach where I was right now, in one single moment gone. All that I stood for gone, Disgrace, shame, indignity were what I could see staring at my face. I could only see one way out of all this mess and I was contemplating on a method to make it least painful. ," I never thought you would have a such a cold , calculating and criminal mind" I said my head in my hand.

"Maybe I don't", she said , " let me tell you, you know that Smith and Wesson of yours, which you dreamed to use atleast once?, well I think its time to use it," Laughing in an almost sinister way she added " What if its on yourself, it's a dream come true, isnt it?"

11th November 1997. 7:00 pm

………..Its said, your whole life flashes before you eyes the moment you die, well, in my case just the last three hours flashed as I held the Smith and Wesson and pulled the trigger. The last thoughts were the relief that I wont be reading the next day news paper and grief that I couldn't say sorry to my wife…….

( Continued from Page 1)
true, as nothing was found to point anything, towards any wrongdoings on Mr. Khambatta's part. The investigation, in no way tarnished , as many would have thought ,the image of the unfortunate man. Riya Khambatta ,the wife of the deceased, who inherited all the property and wealth by virtue of a will which was made by Mr. Khambatta just a few months before the untimely death, has announced her engagement to a certain Mr. Rahul Khanna today. Mr Khanna is a distant cousin of Ms Neha Gupta, whose appointment as the Managing Director of the Rs 500 crore Khambatta Group last December had many a raised eyebrows. The Fact that Ms Riya and Ms Neha, were together at London school of Economics, and said to be best friends who just lost
Touch, is supposed to be the reason behind the appointment. All seems to be going well for the group which is moving from strength to strength. Its sad that, the death of the man, who turned the a small company into a vast empire in a matter of eight years since he took the reins from his father at the age of 25, shall always remain a mystery.

- Swaroop (swaroop@agaskars.com)