Terrorists in the system

 

 

Time heals. Memories fade. Rage gives way to resignation. And furtive apprehension metamorphoses into casual nonchalance. The reigning leitmotif of the Indian psyche after 26/11 was rage and apprehension. You and I just couldn’t help it every time we entered a market, a shopping mall, a train, a restaurant or even commuted to office. The thought and fear that gnawed at our innards was: where and when will the terrorists strike next? Can Indian security forces prevent these unholy warriors of a bigoted and twisted Jehad from targeting us yet again through a macabre dance of death? Can we prevent terrorists from across Pakistan and their foot soldiers acquire false identities and ‘sleep’ inside India till it is time to strike another pulverising blow?

A quiet investigation and operation carried out by The Sunday Indian reveals some shocking truths about how vulnerable India is still to terror attacks of the most brutal kind. We found out that it would be easier for a Pakistani terrorist to obtain an ‘Indian identity’ and settle down in a major city than it would be for a commuter to board a local train in Mumbai. And the sole reason is the greed and corruption that pervades our system. Here is what The Sunday Indian found when it set out to probe India’s basic safeguards against terror attacks: l Transport authorities blithely gave a driving licence to a ‘non-existent’ person. You might say that this is no big deal; that someone in Bihar even obtained a driving licence in the name of Rahul Gandhi recently. But this driving licence carries a crystal clear photo of Ajmal Kasab. And the licence was given when Kasab was arguably the best known ‘face’ in India.

l A ‘lease deed’ was registered on court stamp paper between the ‘man’ bearing the face of Ajmal Kasab and another ‘person’ whose photo is that of Abu Salem. l Touts—without being aware that they were being secretly filmed—promised a ration card for the name changed Kasab.

l The ‘landlord’ of the lease deed (Abu Salem) was given a PAN card thanks to the help of an ‘agent’.

l The said ‘landlord’ (Abu Salem) now has a savings account in Kotak Mahindra Bank.

l The ‘tenant’ of the lease deed (Ajmal Kasab) has been given a bona fide mobile phone connection by Airtel after ‘security checks and verification.’

Here is how we did it.

We started it by downloading the photograph of Ajmal Kasab that is freely available on the Internet for all and sundry. We scanned it and left the face as it is but changed the lower half on Photoshop. The resultant photo had the clear face of Ajmal Kasab but the dress suggested as if he is a yuppy college going boy. We also managed his fake 10th class certificate and an identity card of Delhi. We gave him a fake name, Yogesh Sharma. Similarly, we played with the identity of Abu Salem as well. But in both the cases, we left the face as it is so that it can be identified even by a school going kid. We gave Abu Salem a new identity and rechristened him Satish Kumar Sharma, s/o of Bansi Kumar Sharma. Armed with the fake certificates and original photos we landed in Mathura. Our next job was to apply for a driving licence for Ajmal Kasab. It is not merely surprising but spooky to know that by merely handing Rs 5,000 to the friendly looking agent outside Mathura Transport Authority office, we managed to have Kasab’s licence, duly signed and stamped. We had only given him five photographs.

Incidentally, ‘everyone’ knows that Mathura has emerged as the major hub in North India for fake driving licences. In fact, this reporter stumbled onto the importance of Mathura when he accidentally met a few youngsters who were failing in their repeated attempts to get jobs as drivers for Delhi Police. It was confirmed in Mathura that hundreds of ‘applicants’ pay a bribe and get backdated drivers licences so that they can be eligible for police drivers jobs in Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan.

The driving licence number of Ajmal Kasab is 4158M.T.R2008 issued on March 19, 2008, in Mathura. And if it’s not enough, another friendly looking agent even agreed to get a ration card for Kasab in lieu of a paltry sum of Rs 3,000. Now that rings a bell. It precisely means that by parting away with Rs 8,000, any Tom, Dick, or Harry can become a citizen of this country armed with all the identity and address proofs ever. However, we did not pursue the ration card issue because it appeared too easy for us to go about.

There is a system within the system that eats away constantly at our existence as Indians. Licencing officer Jagdish Rawat, a part of this Hydra that works with the same precision as perhaps the terrorists who threaten our lives, confirmed us in Mathura that the licence issued to Kasab — albeit Yogesh Sharma — was real and original. He has a price: checking the records for us cost us Rs 500. The Sunday Indian actually managed to get inside his office, film the handing over of the money and have a ‘conversation’ with the licencing officer. It is all there in black and white (or technicolour if you wish; the officer Jagdish Rawat firmly reaffirming that the licence issued by his office with the photo of Ajmal Kasab is indeed genuine. And of course, the officer couldn’t care a hoot about the fact that it is mandatory for his office to check the bona fides of a person before issuing a licence). We came back to Delhi and prepared for the next step. The challenge was to produce a lease agreement for Kasab and Abu Salem. We approached a notary who sets up his shop outside Noida Authority office in the vicinity of the national capital. Emboldened by our success in Mathura, we tried to push the limit this time around. We prepared a draft for the lease agreement where Kasab was named as the tenant and Abu Salem the legal owner of the property. (The property we selected was D-5 at Sector-31, Noida. If you remember, this is the same house that rose to infamy a few years ago during the Nithari saga and is still in the news. Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surendra Koli have been accused of raping, murdering and dismembering dozens of young persons right inside this house. In fact, the notary while he was writing down the address in his register did exclaim that “this is the Khooni Kothi and how can it be rented out. With the secret camera rolling, this reporter merely said that ‘Abu Salem’ had purchased the house and wanted to rent it out. That was enough and even pictures of Ajmal Kasab and Abu Salem did not excite any curiosity or suspicion as long as the ‘fees’ was paid. By evening we were ready with the lease agreement of Ajmal Kasab and Abu Salem. Please remember, it is the job of the notary to ‘physically verify’ and insist that the landlord and tenant be present when the lease agreement is being signed and notarized. Obviously, this means that any two terrorists from Pakistan can draw up a lease deed; after having obtained a drivers licence).

This is not about the horror images that leap out at us from newspapers and television sets on a 26/11, this is about how terrorists get there, organised and systematic, working their way through a corrupt, impotent system rotten to the core, till they can kill us and maim us, sacrificed by a bunch of psychopathic killers with psychopathic reasons. This actually is about how we let them get there and hold a country to ransom.

With our Kasab now equipped with a lease agreement, it was time to get him more bona fides: a PAN card for example, to make him a decent, law abiding, tax-paying citizen of India. The application was made through one of those many agents you find at an ICICI Bank branch. The IT department responded within days, prompt and efficient: the card could not be processed, it said, because the sitting position of the applicant was not the way it should be. Not because the man was a branded terrorist, but because of the angle he was when seated on this particular occasion was not according to what the IT department required! In short, Kasab had run into posing problems with the IT department! The status statement appeared as soon as we checked in his name on the department’s official website. As we didn’t have another, well-seated, photograph of Kasab, we decided to leave the matter there. That logically meant we try for a PAN card for Abu Salem, to try and complete the sleeper cell we were putting together right under the nose of India’s officialdom, and as a matter of fact, even facilitated by it. With Salem seated just right, his PAN card appeared at our doorstep within a fortnight: the number CJWPS5363K. As required, Abu Salem’s PAN card had a close-up photograph of his, now stamped and approved, carrying the official seal of what otherwise is one of the country’s most feared departments, and one that the country’s people would normally depend on to keep track of, say, money laundering operations by terrorist organisations. (Readers please take note: The Sunday Indian went to the website tin.nsdl.com. The PAN card application with the photo of Ajmal Kasab was registered on the website with the acknowledgment number 010270101086954 and the name Yogesh Sharma. And you too can go to the website and check that a fictitious man with a fictitious address and the photo of Abu Salem has been issued a card with the number CJWPS5363K. The acknowledgment number is 010270101090266 and the name is Satish Kumar Sharma.

So if Abu Salem was not behind bars after his extradition from Portugal, he could have obtained another passport in the name of Satish and become a law abiding citizen. Now, everyone knows that a PAN card opens the doors to all kinds of ‘legal’ financial transactions and is often rated higher than even a Voter I-Card as a proof of identity. As our subsequent investigations proved, opening a bank account was a cakewalk).

With Kasab’s driving licence in place, and with each of our terrorists now armed with at least one identity and address proof, we had no problem getting them those much-coveted mobile phone connections. We applied to Airtel, and the connections arrived, issued after the mandatory verification of identity and address. Because of the threat posed by terrorists, it is mandatory for mobile phone companies to verify the identity and address of a potential subscriber before issuing a number. We don’t know what procedures Airtel followed to verify the identity of Yogesh Sharma (Ajmal Kasab), whose given address was Krishna Nagar Mathura, UP. But the fictitious man now has an Airtel mobile connection: 9650937613. The only thing left now was that all-important bank account and our terrorists would be in business. We applied to Kotak Mahindra for a bank account for Abu Salem. The PAN card was deposited as identity proof and fake address C145, Vikaspuri to substantiate residence proof. In a matter of days, the account was functional and Kotak Mahindra gave us Abu Salem’s account details: No. 01810120046254, Kotak Mahind Bank, Noida Sector 18 branch. Interestingly, the Assistant Manager was informed in advance about the fake documents. But he was least bothered. What he wanted was investment. Prompt and efficient. Public sector, private sector, nothing whatsoever changes.

Hundreds of Jagdish Rawat clones call the shots within our overburdened, clogged, dark and opaque system. Saroj, the agent who had helped us get our Abu Salem’s PAN card had helped us get the bank account. He couldn’t get one with ICICI or Citibank, he said, but his contact at IDBI got us to Kushal Singh, just the right man for the job, at Kotak Mahindra. This investigation by The Sunday Indian should serve as a wake up call for security agencies who are fighting a relentless proxy war unleashed by ‘rogue’ elements from within Pakistani establishment. Our investigations clearly point to one incontrovertible fact: a band of ten terrorists can come from Pakistan, acquire ‘identities’ as Indian citizens and proceed to create whatever mayhem they can. The magazine is handing over all relevant documents to concerned security agencies and authorities so that these glaring loopholes can be plugged.

Time does heal, and memories do fade. But they are inanimate. The system isn’t meant to be because we are it. It took us at TSI just about eight weeks and about Rs 50,000 to set up, within an impregnable fortress of legal documents and officialese, a terrorist cell that could have gone about its business with the same amount of nonchalance that Kasab went about his in Mumbai.

It is as if we Indians are destined to make history repeat itself, let another 26/11 happen, and wait endlessly for another series of horror pictures to leap out at us from newspapers and television sets — and from within our own homes. The Kotak story

TSI: So, by when can we expect the account?

Kaushal Singh (Assistant Manager, Kotak Mahindra Bank): You give me (money) today, I’ll give you the account number by tomorrow evening…

TSI: So, fifteen thousand, right? And what about verification as I….

KS: I’ll do it.

TSI: How?

KS: I’ll only check the proof of address … Don’t worry, being the assistant manager, I can go in some cases. If I go, it is my liability and my responsibility whether I am doing right or wrong. If I stamp wrong as right, nobody can stop it…

TSI: Okay!

KS: … you know when are we caught? If there is something on paper or wrong documents are attached. Look, a driving licence is easily made …so are voter IDs and mobile phone bills.

TSI: Indeed, very easily…

KS: Apart from this, one is caught if there’s some fraud. Because the inquiry then comes in. It is then that the form is opened and the culprit is caught. Only if there’s fraud committed, will one be caught.

TSI: Why will I commit a fraud? Don’t worry…

KS: Let me tell you, 75 per cent of the accounts are opened with fake documents or with no documents at all. Very few people in the country have complete documents. Driving licence

TSI (on 25 June): We have to get a driving licence for my younger brother.

Dhiri Singh (Agent): What do you want… for what purpose? Looking for a job?

TSI: Yes, Haryana Roadways has an opening. The last date is June 27.

DS: In which case, you want your licence backdated…

TSI: Either way. The date is not the issue.

DS: Only backdate will work… I had issued one earlier to somebody for the same job…but the authorities asked for five years experience.

TSI: Sir, we want you to manage it today only as June 27 is the last date. You are our only hope. We have travelled a long way here by bus.

DS: Not possible. Collect it tomorrow. The licencing officer is on leave.

TSI: And what about verification..?

DS: Leave all that to me …it’s my headache. They’ll write it themselves.

TSI: I hope you are making us an original licence...

DS: Go and check the records. They are all originals…So, get the money.

TSI: How much?

DS: Rs 5,000…