Murder in Bollywood by Shadaab Amjad Khan

blindly do her bidding and convince his entire family to go along with this scheme, who would oblige readily, recognizing the deal for what it seemed, a sound business opportunity. Once the deal was seen through, Morjineh would vanish, selling for cash all the expensive gifts given to her by the ‘mark’ as proof of his undying love, which, among other things, would invariably include diamond jewellery and even an upscale apartment, which she got the ‘mark’ to buy as a love nest for the two of them. Only after her disappearance would the poor man realize that the jewellery store wasn’t the only target, for he was a part of the score as well. But alas, he and his family could hardly take this matter to the police, because any further khaki involvement would expose their own complicity, while the gang, after pulling off this heist, would go underground for a while, then reappear in some other city and start all over again. It was Hoshiyar who discovered that the secret behind this gang’s elusiveness was their total abhorrence of technology. In other words, they never communicated via cellphone or email, as they believed that anything that could get tapped or traced could get them caught; therefore, all their communication was done through handwritten notes, carefully coded and in Farsi, which were hand delivered from place to place via a network of highly trusted carriers. But the most important fact which Hoshiyar uncovered was that this gang also put itself up as thieves for hire, who, for a price, would steal anything for anyone, no matter how difficult the task, and the people who knew about such things would solemnly testify that they were the very best at their craft. Since they were averse to technology, leaving behind no phone number or email ID by which they could be reached, the only way to contact them was by placing an ad in the local newspaper, requesting their services. But it had to be one particular newspaper and the ad had to be worded in a specific way to get their attention. For this, one had to go down to Dongri in South Central Mumbai, to the office of
Shiraznama
, the city’s only Farsi-language daily, quite popular among Mumbai’s expatriate Irani Muslim community, and place an ad in its pages, stating that there was someone interested in selling a 1965 edition of the
Arabian Nights
and all interested parties should contact the seller through this newspaper. Then about two weeks later, a query would appear in the
Shiraznama
in response to the ad, in which a potential buyer would inquire if that edition contained the story of Ali Baba and the forty thieves. If the seller answered to the query in the affirmative the following week, he would have the gang’s undivided attention, who, after a few more exchanges through that very newspaper, would set up a meeting with their prospective client and take matters forward. Hoshiyar had managed to zero in on one such interested party, Taneja, a big-time antiques dealer from Delhi, with a reputation for selling stolen antiques to wealthy private collectors living abroad. According to intelligence agencies, he had his eyes set on a Rembrandt, which was on display at the heavily guarded National Art Gallery in Mumbai for a limited period of time. Taneja wanted the painting stolen while it was in the gallery and within reach; he then set out to hire the services of Ali Baba’s gang, who the police suspected had pulled off a number of such heists for him in the past in different parts of the country, making Taneja one of their regular clients and someone who they trusted to a certain degree. Armed with this information, Inspector Hoshiyar Khan and his team from the crime branch swung into action, chalking out a foolproof plan to nab both Taneja and the gang, and put them away for a long time. But the key to this plan’s success lay in catching both parties red-handed, for which it was decided that the crime branch would keep a close watch on Taneja, and