I have had eleven years of experience in the Investigation setup of the Incometax Department, six years as an Inspector of Incometax, and later five years as a Deputy Director of Incometax Investigation..
In fact this is a specialized job and not everyone who joins as Inspector would have had such long tenure.. with Search and Investigation operations.. planning, executing and following up, and defending the results too..
In retrospect I am amused with myslef.. I was a puny five footer, a soft spoken, academically inclined fellow with no claims of physical or mental agility..
But then it happened so....
The investigative achievements are not worth recall, because, it is part of the official life, and the government of India has paid me fairly well..
And when there were successes by way of seizure of cash, jewellery etc, the department has given us rewards.. free of taxation..
The department looks professionalised and dapper now..
But fourty years ago, we had to exist and survive on our own ingenuity.
If we received an information and we had to trace a telephone number we would have to sit and read the telephone directory entry by entry.. guessing all sorts of permutations and combinations..
I remember having gone through the telephone directory of madras of 1980 in three voulumes or so each of a few hundreds of pages, that too many times over, just to search the telephone numbers and addresses of suspected tax evaders. No searchable direcories in the web, no googling..
We did not have vehicles.. For reconnaissance we would have to just walk along sprawling roads.. And in the middle 1970s the Chennai Corporation had assigned new numbers to buildings en masse.. and the old and new numbers were totally unrelated..and the entire investigation would be worse that a maze, a jigsaw puzzle..
Reconnaissance was an art, a dangerous, risky game.
But that was all the part of the job.. you were paid to do that only.
But the day of search was a real challenge to the officer and the Inspector organizing the raid or search operations.
It was necessary that every known premises of the suspected tax evader and his associates and henchmen should be covered simultaneously, and the commencing time was so sacrosanct.
If the operations covered many cities all over India, still we should ensure that our people knocked at the door of each rendezvous exactly the same time.. anywhere ..
And to maintain secrecy, we would give the search warrants and the briefs--brief description of the operation listing what exactly we expected to find--the route map to reach the place of action etc, in sealed covers, to be opened only five or ten minutes before the strike..
Those days we did not even take police protection for the search operations.
It is was thrilling, and it was nightmarish too
The conduct of a search is more taxing than conducting a marriage.
.Really Taxing on the taxmen
Then we had funny and easy going members in our search parties, who will take everything easy..
We had to spot them and include them in search parties where they can do no harm or damage..
We had little choice and we could not avoid them because when we had to muster a large number of persons just for manpower, we did not bank heavily on efficiency of all.
But still there were some really extraordinarily funny people.
I am remembering on old dandyish Iyengar Inspector,, who will daily come office dressed neatly sporting a Namam(the vertical marks on the forehead made of some special clay, according to religious faith) etc, spend the day for sometime in office and greater time in the canteen, and would get away without much work..
He had only a couple of years to retire, and he had not cleared the qualitying examination which could make him an officer..
So his career was blessed with immunity.
But he was an eager volunteer for search operations..
One added attraction during the searches is that the parties would be served with nice food and snacks at regular intervals.. at government expenses.
This Inspector was a "personal search " expert.. At the time of start of the search operation and if and when anyone leaves the premises when the search is in progress, we would ask all the persons present in the premises or the persons leaving, to hand over to us whatever they carried in their pockets and in their persons. We are empowered to search the persons too..
The lady members were to be searched by ladies in our search parties.. Of course certain restrictions regarding pooja rooms, holy books, and the particular religious practices of the persons whose premises are searched are to be followed.
Our hero, when once he enters the premises would tell all in the party to ensure that personal search should be conducted with reference to all those who are present.. He would tell others to do it , but he would not care to do anything on his own.
During a search, we had taken this man too with us ..
The victim was accosted very early in the morning.. he was a middle aged rustic person, sitting in the toilet with a single bath towel around his waist..
The man was confronted and the search operation went on and on for about 12 hours and it was six in the evening..The person whom we were proceeding against was being grilled all the time and he had little chance to move away from the presence of the officers at any time.
The documents and unaccounted or suspectedly unaccounted money etc were seized, and the Panchanama.. or the seizure mahazar was being prepared.. And the search team was almost ready to leave.
The "personal search" inspector suddenly remembered that the person who had been called from the toilet in the early morning and was being grilled by us all along was not subjected to personal search..
He promptly reported that to the ADI.. the Assistant Director of Incometax, who led the team..
The ADI clearly knew that there was nothing to be gained by making a personal search of the man in question..
The man has nothing on him except a bath towel around his waist and he had just come out of the toilet early in the morning.
.
But the ADI did not want to disappoint our great Inspector.
He told the inspector to carry out the personal search himself, while others attended to the conclusion formalities for the search operation.
The inspector who prided on personal search, approached the victim pompously and informed that he was going to conduct a personal search on the latter..
The victim was already tense and irritated.. He was not exactly suave and effusive at that stage..
He just stood up, removed the bath towel that was all he was dressed with and asked the inspector to see everything.
And our dapper Inspector had the sight of his life..
And an unforgettable experience on personal search..
Dedicated to such funny souls in the Incometax .. past present and future..
