Ananthan Gets Shot

It was just another boring day in office.

After completing my rural assignment at Kursela I was posted to the Zonal Office, Purnea, where I was attached to the Development Officer in the DGM’s secretariat. Apart from writing a few letters and collating some statistics, I had very little else to do. Time hung heavily on my hands and we spent our time going down to drink tea at least 4-5 times in a day, discussing office politics day and night, and desperately seeking some excitement.

One morning, as usual, we had reached office by about 10 am and till about 10.30 people were still settling in with their morning cup of tea, when the Personnel Officer walked in. He used to commute daily from Katihar, which was 40 kms away, but invariably used to reach office on time. Therefore, his reaching late was a little unusual.

After reaching office, he immediately called for me. Since I had been awaiting transfer to Patna for quite some time, even though my transfer orders had come but there was no sign of any replacement joining, I had not been relieved. With the happy feeling that my long-awaited replacement had come I sauntered into his chamber trying hard not to let the anticipation of being relieved show on my face.

What awaited me there was quite different and totally unexpected. With a very grave face he informed me that my friend Ananthan had been shot and was presently admitted at the District Hospital in Katihar. He had very little details beyond this, which he had gathered at the Katihar bus-stand while coming to Purnea. After passing on this information, he practically washed his hands of this affair.

Chokalingam Ananthan was a batch junior to me, and posted at some rural branch around Purnea. I was aware that he had accompanied Pawan, another batchmate of his and the two had gone to Patna, which was about 300 kms away, to purchase a motorcycle for Pawan. My mind was in a twirl and for a few moments could not make out what I could or should do. On instinct I went to the branch, withdrew all the money I had (a little less than Rs.1000/-), informed one or two of my colleagues, picked up my mobike and drove down to Katihar.

I reached Katihar District hospital by about 11.30 am where I found a big crowd of people, quite a few of whom were bank staff, both from SBI and other banks, milling around the place and just adding to the confusion. No one seemed to have any details except that some bank official had been shot on the Katihar-Purnea highway that morning and the person was still alive. After some time, I was able to establish contact with the doctor on duty who in a matter-of-fact voice informed that luckily the bullet had missed Ananthan’s heart and spine, and they had been able to stitch up the wound. However, for further medical assistance and follow-up he should be taken to Patna. Ananthan was at that point under deep sedation.

I then chanced upon Pawan in the crowd. Pawan seemed to be in a complete state of shock, with wide open blank eyes complemented with an equally blank look on his face. I took him away from the crowd and tried to piece together what had happened. By this time, my friend and batchmate, Mohit Sinha who was also posted at Katihar had joined us.

Pawan had purchased the bike the previous day in Patna and he and Ananthan had taken the night train to Katihar with the brand-new bike booked in the luggage van. The train journey was quite uneventful and on reaching Katihar early next morning had got the bike released from the railway authorities. Since, Pawan was not sure of his driving skills, Ananthan was driving it with Pawan in pillion as they drove down from Katihar to Purnea. At around 8 am while they were somewhere midway between Katihar and Purnea they encountered a couple of young men who signalled them to stop. The decided to ignore them but had to slow down a little. It was then that one of these young men whipped out a country made pistol and shot at Ananthan. Even though hit, Ananthan kept driving for a little distance before collapsing.

This being Bihar, things took an interesting turn here. Some local villagers who had witnessed the incident immediately came to their rescue. They first caught hold of the assailants. Then they stopped a passenger bus going from Katihar to Purnea, got all the passenger to get down, got the driver to turn the bus around, loaded Ananthan and Pawan on to the bus and brought them to the Katihar District Hospital where Ananthan was admitted. Meanwhile some other villagers took the two assailants and lodged them at the local police station.

The dilemma now was how to take Ananthan to Patna. Though there were crowds of people, including some from the Officer’s Association, no one was willing to involve themselves. Katihar is about 300 kms from Patna by road and there used to be a pot-holed apology of a national highway connecting the two which it took a minimum of 10 hours to cover and could easily stretch to 14 hours. No ambulance or private vehicle was available and carrying Ananthan in that condition by bus was out of question.

The only other alternative was to take a train which left Katihar at about 4 pm and reached Patna by 11 pm and consisted only of second-class sleeper coaches. One of those slow trains meant for ferrying cheap Bihari labour to Punjab. We decided on taking the train as through the good offices of the local Officers Association we were able to get tickets and reservation in sleeper class. Ananthan was coming in and out of drug induced coma and was on oxygen support. In one of his lucid moments, we asked him of how could we inform his folks of this incident. He was clear that his parents should be informed only if he became well or died. They lived somewhere in the interior of Tamil Nadu, knew no Hindi or English, and would have no clue as to how to handle the situation. However, he had a brother who worked somewhere in the armed forces and should be informed.

So, we boarded the train - Ananthan on a stretcher under oxygen support, my friend Mohit, a young lad who was some private doctor’s assistant and knew how to handle the oxygen cylinder, and myself. Thanks to a friendly coach conductor we got decent berths and the train was not too crowded.

As we were approaching Patna, a fresh dilemma struck us. What were we to do after reaching Patna. How to get Ananthan off the train, what hospital to take him to etc. etc. However, luck was with us. LHO had been informed about the incident and the SBI fraternity, both from the Personnel Department and the Association, were present in full force on Patna station. The Personnel Department was led from the front by the First Officer, Yashi Sinha, himself.

They were aware of the train we were coming on, but had no clue as to in which coach we were in. Yashi had therefore stationed people all along the entire platform. He had also arranged for a doctor, ambulance, cash, police assistance etc. and we were immediately whisked to Patna Medical College Hospital. For the two days Ananthan was admitted there he received virtually no medical attention. Then it was decided to shift him to the private hospital of Dr. Abdul Hai, one of Patna’s leading surgeons where Ananthan was operated upon and over the next ten days slowly recovered and was back on his feet in about two weeks.

There are some interesting sidelights to the episode. Since Mohit and myself had moved directly from office we had no change of clothes, toiletries etc. Since my brother lived in Patna, I managed by borrowing his clothes. With the money Mohit was carrying, he purchased a ridiculous looking orange T Shirt and trousers from some pavement shop and lived in it for the next one week.

Once Ananthan’s condition stabilised, Mohit and myself returned to Purnea. The first thing the Personnel Officer asked me was, "how come I was away from office for some ten odd days without a leave application". Mind you, this is the same guy who did not lift his little finger to help even though he was physically present in Katihar when the incident happened and he was aware of the situation and was fully aware of where and why I had gone!

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. Ananthan had been desperately seeking an Inter Circle Transfer to Madras Circle. He got it on priority soon after he was well enough. And all our other friends who were seeking ICTs from Patna Circle thereafter plotted to seek out someone who would be willing to give them a glancing shot, not life threatening but just enough to get them an ICT. Ananthan got married soon after getting his ICT to a medical doctor.

Pawan did not fare as well. Being the sole witness to the attempt to murder he remained under constant police and societal pressure for a long time. At the same time, he kept on getting transferred from one forsaken branch to another in Purnea Module over the next 3-4 years. He got caught up again in a highway hold up and his bike was snatched never to be returned. After a long time he got an ICT to his home state, Hyderabad. He was one of the brightest and most upright officers I have known. Typical Hyderabadi, absolutely unflappable but with nerves of steel. He recently retired as a DGM.