Ranjita

“Chandu Chacha! Jaldi aayiye! Sahib behosh ho gaye!!” On hearing Ranjita shout for him, Chandu ran inside the house. Seeing “Sahib” with his hands stretched out and eyes transfixed, he wasted no time in calling for an ambulance. He helped in shifting Deven to the hospital, where he was declared, “brought dead”.

Ranjita had shifted into this colony about six months back. When Ranjita and Deven hosted their Grahapravesh, they invited everyone in the colony. It was a kind of gated community which was out of reach to the common man and housed very wealthy and posh sections of society. There were people occupying senior positions in government, the judiciary, the film industry and the police who were either flat owners or tenants. With her friendly approach, Ranjita got acquainted with most of the residents. It was, however, with curiosity that people always looked at the couple when they went out together occasionally. Not without reason too – Ranjita did not look a year older than thirty-five (though she was in her fifties), whereas her husband, Deven must have crossed seventy.

While Ranjita was gorgeous and well-dressed at all times, Deven was always frail and hardly stepped out of the house. Ranjita appeared to be the doting wife taking good care of him. There was a fleet of servants to look after the household and two nurses exclusively devoted to attending to Deven. They seemed to be a contented couple and within the short period of their stay had endeared themselves to one and all.

It was, therefore, a shocked group of neighbours who assembled at her home to pay their last respects to Deven. Ranjita was heartbroken and it was with great difficulty that they could console her. As they had no children or relatives to wait for, the religious rites were carried out immediately.

Neighbours were ready to extend their helping hand in her tragedy and Ranjita was able to obtain the Heirship Certificate very easily and the insurance, accounts, investment portfolios etc., got transferred in her name without difficulty. On completion of the first month of his demise, Ranjita hosted a lunch to express her gratitude to all those who stood by her in her grief and also gave away a souvenir in his memory.

After a few days, she put up the flat for sale saying that she needed a change of scene to come to terms with losing her husband. There were ready buyers as she had quoted a very nominal price which was for grabs. She had offered the flat fully furnished and had already given away her husband’s dresses and belongings and she only had to carry her own in a suitcase, which she did when she checked in to a local hotel so that the new owners could move in. The registry of the flat being done, she settled all dues towards maintenance etc. and returned to the hotel. 

Early the next morning, a few of the colony residents went to the hotel to seek her convenience for a farewell party and were in for a surprise when they were told that Ranjita had left for an unknown destination the previous night itself. They tried calling her on her mobile but it was switched off. They went home disappointed but hoped that they could get in touch with her sometime very soon.

Ranjita had arrived at the Guwahati airport at night and had taken a midnight flight to Mumbai. She did not wish to risk being detected by any of her acquaintances and hence wore a scarf and a mask. She travelled business class and escaped attention. In Mumbai, she had no one to fear and stayed the night in a hotel within the airport as the flight landed at odd hours.

She had drawn up the Action Plan for the day. She first went to a nearby Police Station and lodged an FIR reporting that her husband, Prabhu Kumar who was suffering from dementia had gone missing. After that, she returned to the hotel and spent the day watching a movie on Netflix. The next couple of days, she went sightseeing in Mumbai and then came to the hotel to do her homework. 

She googled up to determine the locality which was populated by the most wealthy and influential persons in the city. She then proceeded there by cab to find out if she could purchase a flat or get one on rent. A seasoned player, she faced no difficulty whatsoever in finalising a well-furnished flat on rent. She also made a down payment of three months deposit. She went back to the hotel to check out and settled her bag and baggage in the flat.  

Next on her itinerary was a visit to a Dementia Care Centre run by one of the NGOs in a suburb. She had already done the spadework by contacting one of the staff there posing as a sponsor promising a huge donation and obtaining all the information about the inmates. She had zeroed in on one Prabhu Kumar who was in his early eighties and who had been found abandoned in a nearby temple. She had cleverly gathered all possible information about him, including the description of the clothes he was wearing when he was found. She had in her possession a soft copy of all the profiles with photographs. The unsuspecting staff member had fallen into her trap and had shared all private documents.

Around ten in the morning, she hailed a cab to visit the Care Centre. She carried with her a snapshot of Prabhu Kumar which she had duplicated from the profile she had received. She also got a copy of the FIR she had filed at the local Police Station a couple of days back.  She reached the Centre around eleven and asked to meet the Director.

She poured out her sob-story saying that her husband who had been suffering from dementia had been missing and she had been trying to locate him in vain. As he was suffering from Dementia, she had been going around all the Dementia Care Centres in Mumbai and this was next in line. She also produced a copy of the FIR and the photograph of Prabhu Kumar. If she did not find him here, she was to advertise in the newspapers announcing a handsome reward.

The Director’s ears perked up on hearing “award”. He was satisfied that this lady was in fact searching for Prabhu Kumar. “What was the award you proposed?” he asked. “Rupees Two lacs,” she replied. “Your search ends here, Madam. If you could make the payment to this Centre, we would be greatly obliged”, he said.

Without batting an eyelid, she asked to be taken to see Prabhu Kumar before parting with the money. Prabhu Kumar was immediately brought to his office and Ranjita performed the act of a wife finding her lost husband, very well. The crisp notes changed hands and Prabhu Kumar was handed over to Ranjita.

She had the cab waiting and she led the docile Prabhu Kumar and made him enter it. They then went straight to the flat that she had taken on rent. She left Prabhu in the flat, locked the door behind her and came down to meet the Security Guard seeking his assistance in finding domestic and nursing help. She had promised a fat salary and he was prepared to send his wife the very same evening as her domestic help. He said that by the next evening he would be arranging for a cook and two nurses as well.

After settling in the flat for a fortnight, she started making friends with the residents. Her main target was the Local Administration and Bankers since their contribution would be most needed for obtaining the Heirship Certificate and other documents for transferring assets.

Ranjita’s modus operandi was truly amazing. Some banks and financial institutions hired agencies to outsource certain kinds of work. She had a network of such persons and gained access to all the details of account holders who had sizeable deposits in their accounts which had been inactive for a long. Depending on the details she got, she would target her next victim, who would most likely be a sick person likely to kick the bucket anytime. She would befriend the higher-ups in government service and banks and use their influence to get things passed without providing address proof and other documents.

Prabhu was her sixth “husband” now. She lost no time in approaching her neighbours and gaining their sympathy. Normally, her husband would die a natural death, but there were occasions when she had administered about 1 – 1.5 ml of air in the vein which caused an ischemic attack or cardiac arrest. She had gained expertise in administering the injections when she attended a crash nursing course when she passed out of school. Since her ways of money-making were horrendous, she never needed to work.

Her sources had disclosed an account number in the name of Prabhu Kumar in a bank in the vicinity of the VIP Colony. Just that she should not cause suspicion, she would lie low for some time and then strike. In the case of Prabhu Kumar, she took her own time as she had bundles of cash earned from other victims. She had made several investments too, which would see her through her entire life. She herself had gotten a little fed up with her acts and decided that there would be no one after Prabhu.

In a few months’ time, Prabhu’s life ended. The same practice of getting things done using influence succeeded here too. After the religious rites had been performed and allowed for a reasonable period of mourning, Ranjita packed up her suitcase and left the Colony. She did not have to settle any bills as there was enough Security Deposit to take care of it. She was at the airport in Mumbai planning to catch a night flight to Thiruvananthapuram, where she knew nobody and could start a new life.

She felt quite relieved that this job too had been completed without any hassles. Her flight was scheduled to leave at 0015 hours, but it had been delayed. She spent her time window shopping when she bumped into the District Magistrate of Hardwar. She was now cornered! There was no escape for her, as he too was on the lookout for her as she had taken him for a ride!

Ranjita tried to fight her case, but her mala fide intentions were proved beyond doubt and she was truly caught in the clutches of the law. Once the story went viral, movie-makers were on the lookout for producers and screenplay writers to make a mega serial of the story.