The Fraud concluding part

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It was finally time for lunch and Anu had grown tired of calling him repeatedly. She hurriedly walked towards Ravi’s desk. It was empty. She was sure she had seen him a couple of minutes ago. Maybe he was using the washroom. She waited. 15 minutes and still no sign of him. She checked his counter for Mr. Mehta’s cheque. There was none. She asked his neighbor, Sharad if he had seen Ravi go out.

“Ravi hasn’t come today. I haven’t seen him all day.” Sharad replied.

‘What nonsense’, she thought,’ I have been seeing him all morning. How could Sharad have not seen him?’

She asked a few more people if they had seen Ravi. Same answer. She felt weak. Was she hallucinating when she saw Ravi? If Ravi was absent from work, whom had she given the cheque to for verification? She walked back to her desk in a daze.

She decided to delete the entry for 12 lakhs so that there would be no questions at the end of the day about the unverified cheque entry. To her disbelief there was no such entry! It couldn’t be, she was sure she had made that entry herself. She tried calling Ravi again.

No reply.

She desperately wanted the cheque back, should it reach wrong hands. No luck. It was almost closing time and the crowd at the branch began to thin out. She wrapped up her work and darted out of the branch.

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 Then she called Ravi again . Thankfully he picked up the phone this time.

“Where have you been Ravi? I have been calling you all day”, she screamed without waiting for him to speak.

“Hello, who is this?” the voice at the other end asked.

A female voice. Who could it be?

“This is Anu,” she continued,” can I speak to Ravi? Where is he?”

“He has gone to the airport to book tickets to Dubai. I am his fiancée Poornima.”

She disconnected the phone reeling under the impact of what she had just heard.  Who was this girl claiming to be his fiancée? Ravi had never mentioned Poornima at any time before. Why was he running off to Dubai like this? As if on impulse, she hired an auto and went to AM bank and checked the joint account she held with Ravi there. After withdrawing the money from the fake Sanghamitra account, they had been depositing it all with this other bank.

“Can I know the balance in this account?”she asked.

“There is no money in this account madam” the guy behind the counter replied.

“What? Who drew the money? Where did the money go?”, she asked in disbelief.

“Madam, the transfer is to Mr. Ravi’s account in The Ram bank. The transfer happened today morning.”

Then it dawned on her.

Cheat. How dare he do this to her? So that is why he was absent from work. He had planned to run away with all their money? She sat on a bench nearby and sobbed uncontrollably. He had not just cheated her financially but also played with her emotions. He had promised her of undying love. She couldn’t believe he had planned to run away with that girl Poornima. It was all her plan, her ideas, and he would reap the fruits of her labour! She wept for a long time not knowing what to do. She had loved him more than her life and he had decided to dump her so unceremoniously?

Then she got up, determined to teach him a lesson. She walked to the nearest police station and spilled the beans on the fraud they had committed together. If she was left in the lurch, she would ensure that he paid for his deceit too. She wept softly pitying herself when Ravi stormed into the police station handcuffed and trying to break free.

“How could you do this Anu?” he barked.

Now it was her turn to unleash her fury. Look at the nerve of this guy to ask her such things. What did he think he was?

“Oh yea, Mr. Ravi, I should have kept quiet, isn’t it? So that you could have decamped with all our money and with that girl Poornima, whoever she is? You creep, serves you right for trying to cheat me.”

“What? Who Poornima? I don’t know any Poornima.”

“Stop it, you brute, she picked up your phone when I called. She told me you guys were getting married and flying to Dubai. You swiped our joint account clean and transferred all the money to your account. You cheat. I hate you. Rot in hell Ravi.”

“No wait. My mobile was lost yesterday evening. I learnt that Sheenu had all proof of our misdoings and also had obtained the account number at the AM bank. So I hurriedly transferred all the money to the other account I had at The Ram bank. And trust me there’s no Poornima.”

Just then Sheenu walked in taking both Anu and Ravi by surprise. She was accompanied by the branch manager and the cluster head. The Anti- fraud team from head office had also accompanied them.   

“Anu, Ravi’s right. There’s no Poornima, only Sheenu, who stole Ravi’s phone yesterday. I knew I had you guys by your cuff, but you could still get out scott free as your crime could never be proved. So the only way out was to get you to confess. Sorry, but your game’s up guys.”

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