Latest revision as of 17:59, 21 April 2024

[edit] The case

[edit] In a nutshell

The Nagarwala case: Is the truth buried?/ India Today/ Aug 6, 2014- May 1, 2015

The Nagarwala case: Is the truth buried?

1971: The biggest bank robbery in the capital hit the headlines. Rs. 60 lakhs was spirited away from the State Bank of India on Parliament Street under mysterious circumstances. The mystery deepened with the alleged involvement of members of the Prime Minister's secretariat and officials in the bank.

The consequent death in police custody under equally strange circumstances of the accused, Rustam Sohrab Nagarwala, 50, following the "accidental" death of a police officer involved in the case only served to illustrate that there was much more to the case than met the eye.

The still obscure mystery had its origins on May 24, 1971. Reporters in newspaper offices were trying desperately to find a story on an otherwise dull day. The blistering heat outside had made the mercury shoot up to 108F. The telephone rang. A crime reporter was told by his police contact: "Daka par gaya 60 lakh ka sarkari bank Parliament Street main". (There has been a robbery ... in the government bank of Parliament Street).

Thus began the story which has been named the Nagarwala case. The mystery remains unsolved. Throughout that eventful day, reporters chased the story and filed fragmented versions based on hearsay. Police officers were tongue-tied. At 9.45 p.m. came the news that Nagarwala had been arrested. At midnight the Inspector General of Police told a hurriedly called Press conference that the case had been solved. The police gave out its version.

The story began 45 minutes after the massive State Bank of India at New Delhi's Parliament Street opened for business on May 24, 1971. The chief cashier, Ved Prakash Malhotra, got a telephone call allegedly from the Prime Minister's secretariat asking him to pay out Rs. 60 lakhs ostensibly required for a top secret Bangladesh mission.

The voice purported to be that of P.N. Haksar, the then Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, who put him on to Mrs Gandhi. After a pause, Mrs Gandhi came on the line and told him to give the money to a person who would approach him with the code word: "Bangladesh Ka Babu". He should reply with a remark: "Bar-at-law", and then deliver the full amount. "As you please, Mataji," Malhotra replied.

Thereafter he asked the Deputy Chief Cashier, Ram Prakash Batra, to pack Rs. 60 lakhs in a cash box. Batra and a colleague, H.R. Khanna, performed the necessary formalities. Deputy Head Cashier, Rawal Singh, while signing the relevant register asked that a payment voucher be made out for the purpose. Batra said that the voucher would be signed by Malhotra. Two cash coolies loaded the trunk into the bank's official car which was driven away by Malhotra himself.

Malhotra says that he stopped the car a little distance away from the bank. A tall, burly, fair-complexioned man approached him and spoke the code word. Together they drove to a taxi stand at the junction of Sardar Patel Road and Panchsheel Marg. There Nagarwala off-loaded the cash box and asked Malhotra to go straight to the Prime Minister's house and obtain a voucher.

The Prime Minister was not at the house and Malhotra went over to Parliament House but even there he could not contact the Prime Minister. He then approached her Principal Private Secretary, P.N. Haksar, who reportedly told Malhotra that there were no such orders and that he should report the matter to the police.

Police took up investigation and a team led by D.K. Kashyap, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Inspector Hari Dev and Inspector A.K. Ghosh started "Operation Toofan" to apprehend Nagarwala. They tracked the taxi which Nagarwala had first hired. The driver said that he had dropped the passenger in Defence Colony. Further investigation showed that Nagarwala had taken another taxi.

It was traced and the driver told the police that Nagarwala had gone to a Rajinder Nagar house from where he borrowed a suitcase. The taxi driver also said that Nagarwala carried a heavy suitcase for a mission in Bangladesh and that he had given him Rs. 500 to keep the secret. The Rajinder Nagar house inmates testified that they knew Nagarwala and he had really borrowed the suitcase. From there he went to Nicholson Road in Old Delhi and then transferred the box in full view of the taxi driver.

The box was later removed to the house of another friend in Defence Colony. He tipped off the police about the wanted man. The police arrested Nagarwala as he returned to his room in the Parsi Dharmshala and brought him to trail. The money was recovered intact.

In the fastest trial in judicial history, Nagarwala was sentenced to four year's rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1,000. In his confession recorded in camera, Nagarwala said that he had thought about the scheme on the spur of the moment to draw attention to the Bangladesh mission. The whole trial was over in 10 minutes. He was convicted on the basis of his confession only, without any corroborative or even supporting circumstantial evidence.

Surprisingly, some days later, Nagarwala filed an order against his conviction. The Session Court ordered a re-trial. Nagarwala pleaded that the re-trial should not be in the court of the Magistrate who had convicted him. On October 28, 1971, his plea was rejected.

On November 16, 1971 Nagarwala in an appeal said that his case should not be proceeded with until the investigation against Malhotra was completed. On November 20, 1971, the young police officer Kashyap, who had headed the investigation, died mysteriously in a car accident while going for his honeymoon.

[edit] Mysterious deaths

As the matter of re-trial lay with the court, Nagarwala sent a message to the then Editor of Current, D.F. Karaka, and an acknowledged leader of the Parsi community, stating that he would like to give him an interview; Karaka was ill so he sent one of his assistants. Nagarwala refused to talk to the assistant saying he would speak only to the Editor.

Early in February 1972 Nagarwala was admitted to the Tihar Jail hospital. He was transferred to the G.B. Pant hospital on February 21. On March 2 immediately after lunch Nagarwala collapsed. At 2.15 p.m. he was declared dead. The day he died was his 51st birthday.

[edit] A raw deal?

Given the evidence, the following is one possible reconstruction of what might have happened. In May 1971, the Government of India had realized that the war with Pakistan on the Bangladesh issue was inevitable. Training camps to train Mukti Bahini volunteers had been set up all over the country particularly along the border with what was then East Pakistan.

In May, Tiger Siddiqui, the 21-year-old guerrilla leader from Mymensingh had brought 10,000 of his boys for training. Guerrilla activity by Mukti Bahini soldiers had been stepped up. They needed arms and ammunition and that needed money.

Nagarwala, himself an ex-military intelligence officer in the British army, had been seconded to the intelligence wing coordinating with the Bangladesh intelligence activity. A bachelor with no vices he soon became the most trusted courier. He had been authorized to collect the amount and fly straight down to Calcutta.

The urgency of the demand necessitated telephonic orders. Malhotra was the only officer in-the bank who was entitled to handle secret funds. It is because of the association with the intelligence agencies and trustworthiness that he was simultaneously put on the Prime Minister's Relief Fund Committee. Malhotra knew Nagarwala and had possibly handed him money before.

What really happened was that when Malhotra, as was the tradition, went to collect the voucher, an innocent deputy chief cashier, Rawal Singh, unaware of intelligence procedures and worried over Malhotra's disappearance for over an hour and a half, went and lodged the complaint. The complaint was recorded by a very junior officer and spread like wildfire throughout the city. It was too late for the authorities to hush up the whole case.

Nagarwala is believed to have always carried a walkie-talkie for emergency instructions. He was ordered to leave a trail so that he could be contacted by his superiors if need be. His licensed revolver was a very modern one and not one of those carried by retired Second World War officers.

Nagarwala had thought he would be somehow freed. His conviction came as a big blow to him. When he went to the higher courts, demanding a re-trial, the government panicked. In utter desperation, the broken intelligence agent threatened to leak out all the details.

He wrote a letter to that effect to his lawyer, R.C. Maheshwari who had told a reporter friend of his that Nagarwala had promised to give him the scoop of the year. Fortunately for the government, Nagarwala died in mysterious circumstances. The inquiry commission should not let the whole truth be buried with him.

[edit] DISCREPANCIES: THE SKELETON RATTLE

The Inquiry must try and unravel the discrepancies in the official version. Some of the more glaring ones are:

[edit] Official version

Officially Nagarwala is said to have mimicked Mrs. Gandhi's voice well enough to fool Malhotra.

According to the official confession of Nagarwala, he thought of the scheme on the spur of the moment and rang up the chief cashier.

According to Malhotra, the code which he had to answer to was "Bangladesh ka babu" with a remark "Bar-at-law".

Malhotra says that he gave Rs. 60 lakhs to Nagarwala in good faith and that he had been duped.

Nagarwala says he deliberately left clues for the police to follow.

Officially, the police state that the complaint was lodged by Malhotra. The court records, however, show that an FIR was lodged by the "deputy chief cashier Rawal Singh".

Nagarwala was an ex-army officer without any visible means of livelihood and it was an individual venture.

[edit] Questions for inquiry

Nagarwala suffered from facial paralysis and suffered also a speech impediment. How could he then mimic the voice and tone so faithfully? Malhotra swore that it was Mrs Gandhi's voice How was he so familiar with Mrs Gandhi's telephonic voice.' Is it a fact that Malhotra was a regular visitor to the Prime Minister's house and was closely associated with her in the Prime Minister's National Relief fund and the Citizens Council? Will any one address Prime Minister as "Mataji"?

Would it not have been more natural to have rung up the bank manager? was Malhotra authorized to withdraw large amounts independently?

Why did Nagarwala's confession then state that he had said that the courier would ask Malhotra-"Aap kis a'eilt ka babuji"? The reply of this would be "Bharat ka". The courier in turn would say "main Bangladesh ka babuji".

As a seasoned cashier, Malhotra knew that he was defying all banking laws and procedures. Had he ever drawn out money in this fashion before? From which account was the money withdrawn and later deposited? Is the State Bank in the habit of giving out large sums of money without proper receipt. vouchers or cheques?

How is it that he successfully covered his trail for the first hour-and-a-half? Is it a mere coincidence that he started confiding in a taxi driver shortly after the complaint had been registered by the police and Malhotra had gone to the Prime Minister's residence?

Is it a fact that Rawal Singh registered the complaint even when Malhotra was allegedly on the trip to take the voucher from the Prime Minister? Was Malhotra forced by the police station and a complaint was registered later in his name?

Is it a fact that Nagarwala was a courier and a training officer for Army-BSF-RAW combine intelligence scheme during the Bangladesh crisis? Though not even a graduate, he claimed to have taught English in a Japanese educational institution for nearly five years. Was he our man in Japan then? Suspicion is confirmed by the fact that immediately after his arrest, he asked for permission to speak to either the Prime Minister or the BSF Director General, who was then Mr Rustomji, an old family friend of Nagarwala.

These questions need to be answered.

[edit] LOK SABHA DEBATE in 1972

LOK SABHA DEBATES/ Wednesday, April 12, 1972

Criminal Case of Bank Robbery Against Shri Nagarwala

[edit] The question

2692 SHRI BHOGENDRA JH A :

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state :

(a) whether Government have decided to drop the criminal case regarding bank robbery involving Shri R. S. Nagarwala who died on 3rd March. 1972 ;

(b) whether the deaths of Shri Nagarwala and of the Police Officer, Shri Kashyap who was incharge of the investigation, have got any connection with the efforts to cover the ramifications and connections of other influential persons with the crime ; and

(c) if not, whether high level enquiry into the affairs is being considered ?

[edit] The reply

THE DEPUTY MINISTER IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI F. H. MOHSIN) :

(a) No. The criminal proceedings pending in court o f the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, New Delhi against the accused Shri R. S. Nagarwala in case FIR No. 815 dated 24th May, 1971 under sections 419/420/409 IPC Police Station Parliament Street, bf»ve been close*) by an order dated 9.3.1972 of the said court on the death of the accused.

(b) No.

(c) No. A Sub-Divisional Magistrate is conducting inquest proceedings under section 174 C.R.P.C. into the circumstances of death of Shri R. S. Nagarwala, accused, Shri D. K. Kashyap, Additional Superintendent of Police, and the Investigating Officer of this case, died in a road accident near Mathura.

A case FIR No. 206 dated 20th November, 1971 u/s 379/304-A IPC was registered in police station Brindaban, District Mathura, U.P. Investigations in this case showed that on 20.11.71 at 4.30 p.m the car of Shri D.K. Kashyap collided with a tonga, which was moving m a group of 4/5 tongas The tonga driver and his hor>e died on the spot. The car was totally damaged, and a pole of the tonga pierced into the right temple of Shri D K Kashyap and killed him. In these circumstances, no further investigation could be done and the investigation has been closed and a final report sent up in this case.