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Thin line between ambition and greed
Ahuja had been disturbed since Pankaj's return from the hospital yesterday. It had been a close escape, for if Abhay had gotten a whiff of what he was up to, there would have been trouble. He had been unable to sleep last night. He was unable to sleep now. He nursed a drink in his hand while he contemplated on everything that was happening. Swadheenta! Yeh ladki mera kuch nahi bigaad sakti suddenly the glass that was in his hand broke to a million pieces to lay shattered on the floor.
Ahuja was born into a family of literates. His father was a professor, and his older brother was studying to take up his CA exams the following year. With no interest in academics, failing every grade, he was considered a bad seed in the family. The constant comparison with his brother, the favoritism, the ridicule had all left a very bad taste in his mouth. At 17 years of age, when he had asked his father was money to start his own business, and had learnt that his dad intended to use all his savings to fund his brothers education, he had been outraged. When his friends suggested that it was his right too, and that he should fight for it, he had taken their words literally and fought, fought with his father and brother till they lay dead in their own pool of blood. As a juvenile, he got released from prison after serving a mild sentence only to return home and see that he had lost his mother too. She had died of depression while he was serving his prison sentence and he was all alone in this world. And that had been his beginning. He had gone on to join his friend Hiren's brother Jitin Rana as an associate in his construction business. The Rana's were known to be goons with a lot of underworld connections. But that didn't matter to Naveen. They were the richest people he knew, and he hoped to become as rich as them one day. He would do anything to get there.
It had taken him time to get into the inner circle of the Rana's. Eventually, when he got there, it was by pure luck. Hiren and Naveen had been sent on a assignment to complete some task of collecting money from an agent. On their way back, they were attacked by cops who started firing shots at them. In order to protect himself Hiren had tried to use Naveen as a shield and Naveen took 2 bullets to his hand. Naveen collapsed and lost his consciousness in the car, only to wake up several hours later to find himself in the car which seemed to have fallen into a ditch. Hiren was dead next to him. Naveen remembered Hiren's deceit and selfishness and decided to use it to his advantage. He went back to Jitin in his bloody state with Hiren's body and spun to him a story of how he had tried to save Hiren and even taken 2 shots, but the cops still killed him. Jitin who was grieved at the loss of his brother had bought Naveen's story and accepted him as one of their own. He even suggested that naveen marry his sister Shika Rana and become part of the family. Naveen who perceived this as an opportunity agreed. With a brief ceremony in the family, he had become part of the Rana's family. An year later, while he continued to grow in the Rana's empire, he had also been promoted in his personal life as a father. The day he had seen Simmi and held her in his hands, he had felt like he won the world. At that one moment he felt like there was one human being on this planet for whom he could and would do anything. He would be the father to her that his father was never to him. He would give her the best in world, and not compel her to do anything that she didn't want to.
Naveen had found out that the Rana's engaged with a lot of money launderers around the world to invest money in the property market in India. They borrowed money from people who had it, and invested it to make returns for them. The money that they eventually made were invested back in many illegal ways. It had come as a shock to Naveen that some of that money was even used to fund terrorist cells in different parts of the world. But Rana had warned him that they were in it for too long now, and how the money got invested wasn't their problem. They had a business to run, and they would run it. A man of low morals as he was, Naveen did not think much of it till the day he had lost his wife and brother-in-law in a bomb blast when they had been out shopping. Naveen had never thought he could mourn the death of anything, but was deeply grieved at the loss of his wife whom he had come to love dearly. He also missed the guidance and support of his brother-in-law, but took this as an opportunity to take over the Rana's kingdom. He was the unopposed leader, and the only family member alive. His first task after taking over, he changed the name of the group from Rana's to Ahuja constructions. If he was going to lead them, he might as well get credit for it. He then made a bold move by threatening the involved money laundering party's to expose the entire money laundering scheme to the government unless he was allowed to participate in it in a more active way. He suggested that since he had just taken over, he could get away with the entire thing by pretending to have never been involved in it since the entire organization was being run by his brother-in-law till date, and that he would leave a testament to that effect were something happened to him under unnatural circumstances. The concerned parties had relented to his conditions, some unwillingly. He had also made a special request. He had to be notified of every blast, assassination that was planned in India by his now partners or their teams. He had vowed that his wife and brother-in-law would be the last people he would lose under these unnatural circumstances, and that he would make sure everyone else that he cared about were protected. Hence grew Naveen Ahuja, a corrupt builder to the world, but much more sinister man within.
On a personal front, his entire world revolved around Simmi. With the loss of his wife, he had taken on the role of her mother too and spoilt her silly with giving her anything that she asked for. It devastated him to know that she had a heart condition that could not be treated easily. He had been inconsolable, and was greatly supported by his aide Pradeep Hooda. Pradeep had been a part of Rana's team for a while and was a few years older than Naveen. Pradeep had been a constant support to him since the death of Jitin and Shika and had supposed him through-out. He was one man that Naveen trusted blindly. His son Pankaj was learning the arts of their business from him and Pradeep. Naveen had hoped that eventually he would get Simmi married to Pankaj and let Pankaj take the reigns of his company. However Simmi had met Abhay when she needed some help with a burglary incidence and had fallen deeply in love with him. When she expressed her interest to marry Abhay, Naveen was gravely concerned. Abhay was an IPS officer and a DCP - Crime branch, Delhi. His family was filled with bureaucrats, and Naveen was nervous about this association. However Simmi was adamant, and Pradeep had advised him that it would be a good thing to have such big government officers as part of the family. Naveen had finally given in and today he was glad about it. Abhay was an amazing boy and Naveen had come to love him as his own. Abhay's brothers Jai and Adarsh were also very good boys, and he knew Simmi was in good hands.
And then she had walked in to his life, threatening his world from its foundation. Swadheenta! It was not that he had not been challenged by lawyers before. It was part of his day to day work to deal with someone accusing him of something. And he had an amazing team of lawyers that worked for him to make sure there were no problems. A few months ago, he had heard of some organizations looking to fund some training camps in different parts of the world. India was a booming economy, and real-estate was a good business to invest in. They had approached Ahuja with a proposal to invest their money in the Indian real-estate market and generate revenues for them. He would receive 15% of their profits, and that sum itself would amount to several hundreds of crores. He was greatly excited about the idea and had illegally acquired some lands in the outskirts of Delhi, the most expensive area in the NCR region. His last couple of ventures had failed, and he hoped that this would be his chance to retake the market. And it seemed to be heading in that direction, until this new lawyer started challenging his claims. He thought he had managed to defeat her, but was rudely shocked when he learnt that she had acquired the original sale deeds of the land. If it could be proven that he did not own that land, not only would he fail in another one of his projects, but he would also loose the money that he had borrowed from his partners for this project. That would not go well with them. And he didn't have the money to return to them. If things did not get settled well, he would land up paying with his life, and maybe Simmi's too. And he was willing to go to any extent to protect the life of his child. Even if it meant killing Swadheenta to put an end to this trial. Singhvi has tried to have her killed once and failed. Ahuja had ordered Pankaj to do the job, and it had back-fired again. Now, he wouldn't depend on anyone else. He would finish the job himself if necessary.
This morning, Simmi had come home to visit him along with Abhay. During the course of their conversation, Abhay had seemed a little distracted and skeptical of everything he said. Did Abhay know anything? But how could he? He may have been at the hospital for any work. Or maybe he had gone to investigate Swadheenta's case only, but so what? They would have reported the accident to the police, and he was just investigating maybe? He was unsure if he was reading more into this because of his present state of mind, but he was certain of one thing. He had to finish this soon, for he had this intuitive feeling that time for him was running out.
Oiye, tu nahi janti ki tune kaun se saanp ke bille mein haath daala hai. Ab tu nahi bachegi. Ab toh mein khud thuje khatam kar doonga.
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