Back in 1983, when Sujit Banerjee and his ally Jatin
Dasgupta fled Calcutta after a robbery, they carried with them two bonduks
(locally made guns) and twenty thousand rupees. Bonduk is called tamancha in
Uttar Pradesh and desi- kata (sometimes just katta) in Bihar. A bonduk is a
small hand gun which is indigenously made in parts of India. It comes in handy
and is cheaper than the foreign made guns, something that the killers and
robbers of the country favored before the nineties. These guns were made by gun
smiths and were sold only if their identity was kept in the dark. During the
British colonialism, when the rebels fought against the British raj, they
obviously didn’t import guns from outside. There were special gun smiths that
learned the craft of developing a locally made gun and supplied it to the
rebels. As India is a country where occupation is heredity, this art is still
in practice and is kept under the eye of the government. Some also claim that
the police knows about it, but they never say a word, because they are fed,
under the table.
Sujit was a school dropout and Jatin dropped out from the
famous Hindu college of Calcutta, which is now known as the Presidency University.
Both knew each other for a long time, since they lived in the same hostel- the
Bakers hostel in Taltala. Not only did they share the room, but also the
poverty stricken nights without food. There were nights when they would satisfy
their cravings with puffed rice and green chilies. On some nights, neither of
those was available. The planning of the robbery was simple, hold a gun to the
face of a businessman and take his money from his house. The motivation was
obvious- money. The idea of robbing someone is difficult to execute, it is
entirely on a different level of danger, but the motive and the most important
thing in their mind was not to get caught. The execution was next to perfect
and they managed to run away with twenty thousand cash. The police were
informed and the search was on. But, both were not found, because they didn’t
stay in Calcutta, they were on their way to Siliguri and from there to Nepal.
To dodge the police, they changed their modes of
transportation, sometimes they travelled by train and sometimes by bus.
Sometimes they walked for many kilometers, just to make sure they didn’t leave
any traces behind. Jatin knew someone in Nepal who could help them settle there
with the recently acquired cash. They first stopped in Asansol, then Malda,
then travelled for 3 days to reach Kishangunj and finally they had to reach
Siliguri. Between Kishanganj and Siliguri, they made a stop at Bagdogra- ten
kilometers away from Siliguri.
Back in the days, Bagdogra was a notorious place and there
was a lot of illegal smuggling that went on via the border of Nepal. Both of
them decide to halt for few hours and then continue their journey hence. The
border through Panitanki was not heavily guarded and even the police didn’t
care about it. But, they did indulge themselves in random searches. If your
luck ran out, they could seize the money and you end up in prison, Chances of
that happening was one in a hundred. Both Sujit and Jatin were aware of the
possible danger, but they were prepared to take the risk.
They made a stop near Bihar more at a local bar called the
Mohini bar. Mohini bar was located at a deserted place, where few buildings
were constructed. Unaware of the fact that this bar was owned by a rich
landlord, it was a haven for thugs and hooligans. There was a sign board that
read- “Children are not allowed”.
“Why are children not allowed?” asked Jatin trying to think
that there was after all some sanctity in people alive.
“So that they don’t learn drinking and smoking” Sujit
replied with some disgust and dragged Jatin in.
Most people who came to the bar were laborers and they
didn’t have much cash on them. But, there was an illegal betting room, where
some of the well to do people gambled during the day. During the day it is safe,
as the police are busy with their activities and once in a blue moon, the raid
is performed at night. Betting during the day was highly classified activity
and only a few handful of people were allowed to enter the private room. The
bets went on for hours without disturbance from people. Only alcohol was
permitted inside through a waiter called Subhojit. Subhojit was twelve years
old and was absolutely harmless, hence the selection. Nobody actually knew how
high were the stakes but legend has it that few thousands were on offer.
Sujit walked in and scanned the place. He didn’t see many
people, owing to the time of the day. Jatin followed a second later. There were
seven tables with seating for four at each one of them. If the crowd was large,
the tables were joined manually. The bartender was a burly man of late
thirties, with less hair on his head and more on his face. He had a scar across
his forehead, from an earlier confrontation of a physical battle. He wore
ragged clothes and gave the impression of running the place smoothly without
much money on offer. He gave a ghastly look, at the new customers and assigned
them a table from the corner of the eye. A man of few words, Pradeep the
bartender summoned Subhojit to service the new guests.
“What do you want sir? Ki lagbe?”
“What do you have?” said Sujit.
“Do you want Indian or foreign?”
“How much for foreign, and what is the pri..?” questioned
Sujit to know his options, when he was interrupted by Jatin.
“Foreign kano? (Why foreign liquor) Manush aamader shondeho
korbe! (People would suspect us)”, with the hinge of discomfort Jatin tried to
stop Sujit.
“Chaap nis na bada! Kichu hobe na, accha foreign nibo na”,
Sujit in turn consoled Jatin to relax and that nothing would happen and that he
wouldn’t order foreign liquor.
Jatin relaxed for a while. Sujit in the meantime placed the
order for a bottle of Indian liquor. To complement the alcohol, he also ordered
for some snacks in the form of ‘bhuja’, which is referred to as Bombay mix in
Great Britain.
The order was served in a few minutes and both of them
indulged themselves into a private conversation regarding future plans.
“Listen, we will leave this place here and go to Panitanki,
from there we go to Kakarbitta and from there to Kathmandu. Three days to do
so, after that we need to plan together and stay focused.” Sujit reiterated the
plan just to keep the conversation going for Pradeep not to be skeptical.
“Accha ekta kotha, tell me a thing, is ten thousand enough
for one person? What if we need more money to send home? What if we run out of
options?” Jatin tightened his brows with a worried look on his face.
“Tor mane ki? (What are you implying?)”
“What if this money
is not enough? What do we do then? Should we steal again, but we can’t take
this gun to Nepal.”
“Thik bolchis, you are right, but do you have a plan?”
“We need extra money, just in case we need to bribe the
police or for dire circumstances.” There was a silence and Jatin spoke again “What
if we loot this place? It’s kind of deserted here, few people, no police nearby
and these people hold in a lot of cash within their drawers, my gut feeling is
kicking in. If we show them the gun we can get the money without bloodshed.”
Before Jatin could finish Sujit interrupted.
“Bahire dhore nibe, they would catch us outside. We can’t
run till Nepal like this, you are crazy.”
“No I am not, I saw a motorcycle outside and I saw the
waiter deliver the keys to the bartender, we can run away on the motorcycle and
ditch it somewhere after 10-15 kilometers. We will go to Panitanki after that.
Nobody knows us and they wouldn’t even suspect us.”
“This sounds too good to be easy, let’s be satisfied with
what we have. If you need money you can take some from me.” Sujit tried to shun
the devilish idea that Jatin was having.
“Okay, let me observe for few more minutes and then I will
tell you to abandon or to execute. There are currently two people here. One
waiter and one bartender, which makes it four, excluding us.
These are laborers
and they will comply when a gun is at their face. The waiter is a child he will
not do anything. This leaves us with the bartender, we are two and he is
single. He is outnumbered and he will be unarmed, at least I hope so. He will
not take a chance with his life. There is nobody outside. It’s hot and except
the petrol pump there is nothing that could house people. I say let us do it.”
Jatin thought about this in haste, but he was confident that he was not wrong.
A robbery here would be much easier than the one they had
pulled out five days back. The bartender would naturally fear for his life and
he is surely not the owner, so he would give the money.
“Oh sob thik aache, kintu taka kato pabo?” Sujit counter
questioned Jatin about the quantity of cash they could loot. He continued
“Maximum, he will have five hundred nothing more than that. Let’s not risk everything
for such a petty amount.”
“True. Let me find out if he has more cash. If he doesn’t we
pay the bill and go out. Else we wait.”
“Ja khushi kor (do as it pleases)” replied Sujit and
finished his drink.
After eight focused minutes on the bartender and the waiter
and some more drinks Jatin was sure that he wanted to rob this place. There was
an instance when the waiter came up to the bartender and asked him something.
The bartender gave him something wrapped in a cloth. Jatin was sure that it was
the earnings of a few days and it could be more than five thousand. The bar was
a single floor building so there had to be a safe somewhere inside. Possibly
there could be more than that meets the eye. Jatin was absolutely sure that he
wanted to execute the plan.
“Let us do it. I have done all my research and my plan is
full proof.”
“Pagla na ki? Are you crazy?”
Sujit received a stern look “No I am not crazy, I am sure
about the cash this place has and we are going to rob it in the next minutes.”
Sujit looked at Jatin to read his face, he was at the peak
of his concentration and he was not at all joking. Sujit had no option, he had
to carry out the task.
“Thik aache bada, but if I die, you will pay my share to my
family in Bankura.”
“Sure” replied Jatin, he stood up and walked to the
bartender.
“Dada, kato hoyeche bill? (How much is the bill).”
The bartender ran a quick check of his notepad and replied
“eighteen” only to look at a gun that was pointing at his nose.
There was silence and Sujit, locked the doors of the bar,
told all the customers to remain seated and called the waiter.
“Chotu, ja taka niye aai. Get the cash in this bag.” The
waiter stopped and looked at the bartender for instructions. The bartender didn’t
move. Nobody else did.
Jatin holding the gun even firm asked the bartender to give
him the cash “give me the cash and you can live, do something silly and I will
shoot you. Do not speak a word, just do what I say. Send the waiter to get the
cash you sent inside and put the rest in this bag.”
The bartender didn’t blink an eye, he stood firm and said
“No, I will not give you what is sent inside, we hardly have a hundred rupees
here in the counter, you can take that and leave the boy.”
Jatin was unabashed “Give me what you have here and tell the
boy to get the rest of the cash from inside.”
Bartender was stern again and replied “the child will not go
inside, I can give you the money that I have here.”
Jatin asked him to fill the bag “Thik aache.” After receiving
a thrifty amount, Jatin was not satisfied, he couldn’t agree that his planning
was wrong and he was sure that there was more money. He told Sujit to take a
look inside with the boy while he grabbed the motorcycle keys.
Two seconds later, there was gun fire in the inner room.
There was a series of bullets that were fired and Sujit didn’t move. He fixed a
gaze at the door and was sure that anybody walking outside that door would be
shot. There were few more shots within the next seconds and then the sound
subsided.
Nobody walked out from the door. Baffled about the recent
events, Jatin asked for explanation to the bartender “What happened?”
The bartender tried to pull out his gun and point at Jatin.
But, Jatin was quick and shot him dead with the first bullet. That was the
first bullet he had ever fired. He saw the blood spill on the wall behind and
his face was also covered in spots of red. One of the laborers tried to run,
but he was shot was Sujit. There remained only one laborer, the waiter and unknown
amount of people inside the room.
Sujit was scared so he ordered the last laborer to take a
look inside the room. He was told at gunpoint so he couldn’t refuse. The
laborer took slow measured steps. Turning around after each step and almost
asking to let him go. He reached the door after a total of ten steps. He opened
the door and almost in the next second he too was shot dead.
Jatin was sure that there was cash in there and he didn’t
want to give up on his plan, but he had less time. So he decided to go in and
shoot anybody who was in sight. He started to walk towards the room. Sujit
wouldn’t approve “are you crazy, there is no way you are going in there.”
They had to know if there was an imminent danger in that
room. Both of them looked at chotu Subhojit and asked him about the shooting.
He was scared and he didn’t reply for a minute.
“Inside, there are four gamblers, I don’t know how many are
alive or dead. They have a lot of money, please don’t kill me, let me go” said
Subhojit and pleaded for mercy.
Sujit worried for his life said “Let’s get out of here, this
doesn’t seem to be a good idea. There is money there, but risking our lives
would be nonsensical.”
Jatin was unabashed
“No, I am not leaving without the cash that is inside. Chotu, go in and check
if there is anyone alive?”
Scared for his life, Subhojit, took baby steps and said
“Maalik, aami aaschi (master, I am coming in).” While following him closely
were Jatin and Sujit. Both of them clasped the gun in front of their eye and
were ready like a sniper. Slow measured steps brought them close to the door.
They ordered Subhojit to open the door.
Subhojit, opened the door, which creaked giving shrill
noise. Inside, the room was a bloodbath, there lay four men, with bodies
punctured by bullets. There was approximately fifteen thousand cash on the
table. After observing that all the people were dead, both Jatin and Sujit
collected the cash and headed out. They had to dart for the bus to Panitanki,
when they heard the sobbing of the waiter.
He had seen such a horrific incident and he was the only
witness that was left behind. Jatin wanted to run away, but Sujit felt for the
child. He grabbed a couple thousand rupees and told the child to run away and
lead another life. He was twelve and he could start anew. The money meant
nothing for the time being, as the trauma was more painful. But, they had to
leave. Subhojit’s family would take care of him and time would heal everything.
They told him not to cry and to take the money to his family and run away from
here. Time was less and they had to move on. Sujit said a soulful bye to the
waiter, but he didn’t respond.
Both of them knew something was wrong, Sujit showed his
emotions while Jatin hid it. When they opened the door for a new start with
more than thirty thousand rupees. They saw a young girl standing outside.
“Tui ke? Who are you?” asked Jatin.
“Aami Debo. (I am Debo).”
“Why are you standing here?” asked Jatin again.
“My dad is drinking inside!” Silence, and then Jatin fell to
his knees, clutching his gun and teary eyes.
