While Erach Bagli was making the telephone call to Nargolwala, the police were going through Nagarwala’s belongings. By the time the high priest returned to the scene of action, Nagarwala’s room appeared to have been “ransacked”. Bagli would recall later.
One of the officers held “a revolver wrapped in a white shirt” and some cartridges. Papers lay strewn all around the room as the policemen searched the suitcases, which did not have any locks. Bagli watched as the officers finished their work. The search lasted about half an hour.
The police officers made a panchnama, listing the revolver, the documents they had found, Nagarwala’s old and new passports, photographs and cyclostyled copies of his biodata. Kashyap even rolled his eyes while going through a copy of the biodata. A moment later he appeared gleeful – they had found what they were looking for, including Nagarwala’s physical description.
According to the documents they had found, Rustom Sohrab Nagarwala hailed from Pune. Born on March 2, 1922, in Bombay, he studied at St Vincent’s High School in Pune between 1928 and 1936. After completing his Intermediate of Arts (IA) from the Nowrosjee Wadia College, he joined the Indian Army as an officer and was with the Army Ordnance Corps between 1943 and 1951.
The documents revealed that the former army captain could converse in English, French, Japanese, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati. He used to run a tourist taxi service, had a professional driving licence and had also worked as a tourist guide in India. He had briefly lived in Nagoya, Japan, where he had taught English at the American Culture Center, Nagoya, and at the University in Nagoya.
Nagarwala’s biodata described him as a “friendly” companion, travel guide, shopping adviser, car driver and someone with excellent practical knowledge of India, Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known then) and Hong Kong. It said he could work in any administrative capacity in any office, while, for the purpose of export and import, he had excellent contacts with business houses in all the “above countries”, especially in Japan. According to the biodata, he could ride horses, swim, play contract bridge and cook Indian dishes.
Inspectors Bose and Hari Dev had also found a few letters, visiting cards, driving licences, a steel badge (No. 7778) along with a licence, another steel badge (No. 856) and a few documents in Japanese. The papers in Japanese, later translated, pertained to Nagarwala’s application for a licence to the Kobayashi Licensing Authority, Japan, regarding “cam, cam gear, cogwheel, etc”. Another document the officers found was from the licensing authority rejecting his application on April 12, 1966. A few photographs of Nagarwala and a copy of the Indian Army’s Officers’ Record of Service book 439 were also among the documents seized.
While the search was on, a telephone call was received at the dharamshala. A policeman came running to inform the officers that DIG PA Rosha was on the line. However, Rosha seemed to be unaware that the team had reached the Parsi dharamshala in pursuit of the man who had allegedly fled with Rs 60 lakh. His call was in response to SD Nargorwala’s call to him. Nargorwala had complained to the DIG about the raid at the dharamshala without a “search warrant” and accused the police of acting in a “high-handed manner”.
But Rosha was firm. He informed the senior bureaucrat that he had himself taken ‘the responsibility for this action’ and ordered a search of the premises as it was ‘justified and in accordance with the law’. Rosha told Nargolwala that Bose had briefed him about the developments that had led the police to the Dharamshala.
Around 7.30 pm, another telephone call was received at the dharamshala’s office. This time, Inspector Bose picked up the phone. A woman was at the other end of the line. She inquired about Nagarwala. Bose informed her that Nagarwala was not available at the moment and that he could note down a message for him. The lady replied that Nagarwala had asked her to ring him up at that time, which was why she was calling.
Bose tried to get her name and address, but was unsuccessful. She refused to part with any information and disconnected the call. But overall, the police search at the dharamshala had yielded a lot of information. They now knew all the details about Nagarwala, and, if everything went to plan, he would be in handcuffs soon. The New Delhi district police, led by ASP Kashyap, had made a breakthrough in a sensational case in record time.
The ASP and his two inspectors had been on the job since morning and needed a quick wash and change of clothes. Hari Dev and Bose, who had years of experience behind them, asked subinspector Surender Singh, Hawa Singh, who was Bose’s assistant wireless operator, constable Nand Lal and the two taxi drivers Balbir Singh and Om Prakash to stay back at the dharamshala. They had to keep an eye on the place, the officers said, as the alleged culprit might come back at night. The five men were given Nagarwala’s photographs, seized from his room, so that they could identify him as soon as he arrived. A police Jeep was parked at a distance from the dharamshala, in case there was any trouble.
Bagli and his wife were given Rosha’s telephone number and asked to contact the DIG as soon as Nagarwala returned to the dharamshala, or provide any information that could help the police track him.
Dinwar Kolaji, Nagarwala’s roommate, returned from his office and found the door of the room open. He pushed open the door, entered and froze. All his belongings, including his clothes, lay “scattered’ all around. Kolaji rushed to Bagli’s room and was told the police were looking for Nagarwala, so they had searched his room.
Around 8 pm, Balbir Singh noticed a scooter-taxi stop outside the dharamshala. A man, carrying a scooter tyre and tube and a Rexine bag, walked into the compound.
Balbir, however, failed to recognise Nagarwala, who had had his hair trimmed and dyed. The policemen, who had been shown photographs of Nagarwala a few hours earlier, also didn’t recognise him. Mrs Bagli was sitting with two friends when she saw Nagarwala enter the premises. Already upset, she bolted her room from the inside. Her husband, too, was in the room, tense and lost deep in thought.
Mrs Bagli dialled the number the policemen had given her. “Nagarwala is at the dharamshala,” she spoke into the phone even as her two friends rushed out to inform the policemen at the gate that the person they were looking for had arrived.
Unaware of the developments, Nagarwala walked into his room to find it turned upside down. Like his roommate, Nagarwala rushed to Bagli’s room and banged on the door. Bagli did not want to come out and talk to him. Mrs Bagli opened the door and informed Nagarwala that Bagli was not at the Dharamshala.
Nagarwala was furious. “Who ransacked my room?” he demanded. Mrs Bagli, who, too, was seething inside, bluntly told Nagarwala that the police had searched his room. She added that they suspected he had stolen Rs 60 lakh from a bank.
“It’s all rubbish!” Nagarwala shouted. “What right do the police have to search my room?”
The angry exchange between the two caught the attention of Hawa Singh and Nand Lal, the two policemen who were outside the compound. They ran to the manager’s room and caught hold of Nagarwala.
“I will get you suspended!” Nagarwala screamed at Hawa Singh. The assistant wireless operator pulled out his service revolver, pointed it at Nagarwala and asked him to follow his instructions. Nagarwala struggled to free himself but couldn’t. The policemen dragged him outside, where others, including the two drivers, joined them. Nagarwala was made to sit on a chair in the compound while the policemen waited for their seniors to arrive. Balbir Singh and Om Prakash took a close look at Nagarwala and confirmed that he was the one they had driven around the city earlier in the day.
At the Tughlaq Road police station, a message crackled on the wireless set: “Nagarwala came to dharamshala and has been arrested.” Kashyap, Hari Dev and Bose, who had by then had a quick wash at the police station, rushed to the dharamshala, covering a distance of seven kilometres in fifteen minutes.
Kashyap asked Sub-Inspector Surender Kumar Singh to check the tyre the police had seized from Nagarwala. A few hundred rupee notes fell out when the policeman deflated the tube. ‘I don’t know how many were in there. But there were two bundles. Hari Dev took the notes,’ Hawa Singh said, adding that when he lifted the scooter tyre (manufactured by Firestone) to hand it over to Hari Dev, the notes had bulged out. The tyre was deflated and two bundles were found. Hari Dev took charge of the tyre, the money and the suitcases.
The officers then took Nagarwala and the two taxi drivers to the Parliament Street police station, leaving Hawa Singh and Surender Kumar Singh to guard Nagarwala’s room and keep an eye on the dharamshala.
Shortly after the officers had left, the dharamshala received another telephone call. Bagli asked Hawa Singh to answer it. A senior Delhi Police officer of the rank of superintendent of police (SP) was supposedly on the line. The caller said that Nagarwala was “innocent”.
“I told him that Nagarwala had already been taken to the Parliament Street police station by D.K. Kashyap sahib,” Hawa Singh told the Reddy Commission later.
Excerpted with permission from The Scam That Shook a Nation: The Nagarwala Scandal, Rasheed Kidwai and Prakash Patra, HarperCollins India.
