The First Trillionaire

Untitled Part 30

The next two weeks saw Shail becoming more and more adept at the office work, which was not missed by those around her at office. She no longer had any trouble understanding terms like "SARFAESI"(Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act 2005)and "mortgaged land" outside of her books, and she had even made friends with some of her fellow staff members.

But when she made a deep study of mortgage financing, she understood a lot of gray areas in it. One such file was that of Ms Mudrika Sinha, which had a mortgaged property. This property was located in the heart of the city, and had approximately 1million square feet of land mortgaged with poorly finished school buildings. When she enquired about the property prices in the neighborhood, she found thatthe per square feet price was more than $ 100. So, by this logic, the property price of that land was approximately 100 million. The outstanding loan on that property was close to 1million. She heard that the bank was e-auctioning this property for as low as 1million, and the purchaser wasBacheSingh, who had very good connections in the hierarchyof the bank, and in the local administration. He was also the front man of an international don. They were basically earning black money in rough diamond and conflict diamond processing internationally, and investing this money in properties owned by banks, whose valuation was being done at an abysmally low rate by the empaneled valuers of the bank in connivance of the higher keys of the management of the bank.

The real problem occurred when the transfer of the money for auction value has to be done through the bank. For this, the whole team of officers and criminals were over-valuing properties mortgaged by these criminals. BacheSingh was one such person who availed many such loans from the bank for his mortgaged property for the businesses of his contract and constructions.

Shail further enquired about the mortgaged property of BacheSingh and noted a surprising thing. All these properties were earlier agricultural lands, which had been converted into commercial land through local administration. All the documents were valid. The title of the property had been given clearance by the empanelled advocate of the bank. Shail enquired about their registration and documentation in the registration office and the land revenue office. She found everything to be correct. On paper, all records of the land were correct, but when she tried to physically verify the property, she found it to be sunk in the River Ganga. The empaneled valuer of the bank had given very high valuation of this property.

Ganga changes its course of flow with passing time. Some decades ago, these lands were farm tracts, but later the changing course of this river had sunk these lands. So on paper all record of the land was ok, but physically it could not get located. Pre- and post-inspection report of the officers of the bank had made a clear description of the boundaries of these lands mortgaged to the bank.

It was a fraud. Shail delved in deeper and found through some of the sources that this wasa multi-billion-dollar fraud.

Being a new recruit to the bank she digested all her research and never revealed it to anybody.

Her days in the bank otherwise started passing peacefully and Mr. Gaurav found no reason to be strict and stern with Shail for the young girl was doing all the tasks he assigned her to utmost perfection. At times, Shail would complete the task assigned to her well before the deadline and Gaurav would be left awestruck at the swiftness and her enthusiasm for new work. In his experience, young trainees were impatient and became lax with time. While the other employees took advantage of their so called ' safe government jobs', Shail gave to the job much more than a person at her position and of her age could deliver.

For Gaurav, Shail was not some pesky and lost newcomer. She proved herself time and again. She proved her worth and backed him when he found himself at opposite poles with the others at office. It was about ten days after her joining, during a staff meeting with the zonal manager, when Gaurav had raised an important topic that regarding the debt given by the Credit Department. The discussion had turned into a raging debate with Gaurav on one side and the rest of the department personnel and the branch manager on the other side. It went on for a while until Shail raised a valid point and supported Gaurav's ideas. It was something that Gaurav had not thought of himself, like one of those little things that the bigger and smarter people often miss out but a fifteen-day-old employee easily remembers. She rose in his esteem considerably after that meeting.