THE NDA HEIST AND DARSHAN SINGH
During my tenure as an instructor in the NDA, I chanced upon
some archival albums of this institution displayed in the office of the
Squadron Commander of Charlie Squadron; Major Anil Talwar a cavalry man from
the Hodson’s Horse. Therein is a quote from the fourth commandant, Maj Gen E Habibullah
who was at its helm from 07 Jan 53 to 26 Dec 58, which must surely epitomise
the objective and purpose of cadet’s training; in this cradle of military
leadership. According to him the laudable aim of the NDA is to produce “such
future leaders and officers in the armed forces of the country, who are imbued
with a sense of righteousness, which is inevitably combined with the daring do
of a street fighter, who has evolved from a rich harvest of naughtiness and
mischief; quite contrary to those who are wary of some healthy horseplay, lest
it detracts from their being acknowledged as an officer and a gentleman”. It
could not have been worded better, to expound what reams of written words are
unable to convey. I was then with my 20 years of service behind me, so taken up
by the perspicuity of thought of Maj Gen Habibullah, who knew the essence of cultivating
the mainspring of character driven leadership in the alumni of NDA.
The ‘Mausambi’ and ‘Ganna’ raids by cadets in Pirangut and Kondwa
villages, climbing atop the Sudan Block Dome and placing a pith hat on the
lightning conductor, sneaking into camps Green- horn and Rover by doing a bunk from the
Academy and running cross country to reach there under the cover of darkness;
just to get a share of the scrumptious ‘Tipsy Pudding’, raiding the NDA cafe
when it was run on contract, staying in Hotel Taj in Mumbai for a night by
conning the staff, dancing and drinking in the discotheque ‘Crystal Room’ and
walking out from there without making any payment, walking into a fashion show
in Colaba without tickets by hoodwinking the security, drinking and dining at
the pleasure of the organizers and
clandestinely sneaking women of easy virtue into cadet cabins for a night of
amorous pleasure; were some of the things which cadets did on their own, quite
in keeping with the spirit of what has been stated afore. While the structured
and un-structured training provided us with the physical, mental and moral
wherewithal to become fit and robust, it was these shenanigans which we cadets indulged
in of our own volition,that provided us an opportunity to experiment with and
validate our learning in a real time scenario. The cost we had to pay, if
discovered, was calibrated in keeping with the discretion of the disciplinary
authorities and could be anything from ‘Restrictions’, ‘Sinhgarh Hikes’, ‘Relegation’
and ‘Withdrawal’. But yet we took the risk of going ahead with our intent, only
because it challenged our youth to write its own story.
It was when Darshan Singh was the PTO, that a heist was successfully
attempted in the impregnable precincts of the Gymnasium, which was the other
sanctum sanctorum of training, in tandem with the Drill Square in the NDA. The
PT and Sports store, which abuts the Gymnasium, is stocked with kit, equipment
and sundry items valued at some good cost.
The store has a wooded door and many windows and ventilators, secured by
iron grill. At the end of the day, the door is bolted and secured by a huge
lock, which is further sealed in a cloth bag with a wax seal. Then CHM MV
Kannan, a wiry and curly haired balding madrasi, was the NCO I/c Store. It was
on a Monday morning, when CHM Kannan opened the lock of the store and pushed
ajar the door, that his intuitive sense told him that all was not well. A
running glimpse of the shelves revealed that things had gone missing. Burdened
with the onerous responsibility of being the store keeper and with the fear of
repercussions, which he would invite upon himself from the gigantic looking
Darshan Singh, Kannan broke into a cold sweat. He meticulously inspected the shelves
and its accompanying Bin Cards, to tally what was existing and what was not. The
list of missing items started swelling and very soon the nomenclature and
quantity of things which had been picked up was ready for the perusal of the
PTO. Kannan then made his report to Darshan Singh, but was unable to establish
the point of entry and exit of the person(s) who had made good with the stolen
items, as there was nothing apparently visible to the naked eye. It was in
these situations that the investigative mind and brilliance of Darshan Singh
came to the fore and he went about his investigation in a clinical manner, till
he chanced upon an iron grill in the ventilator, which was missing. The opening
provided just about enough space for someone to slip in and out from the gap.
QED. This had to be the ingress and egress route of the thief (s). The list of
things gone missing from the store included such items as golf balls, golf
clubs, cricket, tennis, squash and hockey balls, tennis and squash rackets,
cricket bats, anklets, football goalkeeper gloves, stop watches etc. The job
had been brilliantly executed with no tell tale signs left to take leads from. This
was Darshan’s greatest challenge; to catch the thief (s) who had dared to
invade his bastion and commit robbery from his store. How could Darshan Singh
be cocked a snook at? A FIR was lodged by the Security Officer of the NDA with
the Uttamnagar Police Station. In the interim Darshan had sent a word to all
the sports dealers who did business with NDA, to keep a look out for any sports
goods finding its way to their shops for resale, and should it so happen then
to inform him immediately about the same. The matter went into a bit of a
stalemate, with nothing either coming up as any evidence or else an alarm from
any of the many sports dealers.
While matters continued to be routine in the NDA for some time
since this heist, the ring of Darshan’s residential phone one afternoon brought
him up from his bed and shook him awake from his sweet stupor. It was the call;
he was most impatiently waiting for. Mr Grover of Rovers Sports on Main Street,
Pune was very excited to tell him that some of his cadets had come over to the
shop about ten minutes back and were making very discreet enquiries about the
sale of some premium branded sports items. They had left a list of certain
items with him to demand a price quote from him and walked out with the promise
to get back after an hour. The items were by and large what had been stolen
from the sports store some time back. Darshan, directed his friend and dealer
to ask the cadets to come to his shop on the following Sunday, with all the
items they were desirous to sell. The price could be agreed upon and negotiated
once the items were in the shop. The trap had been laid by the wily old fox
Darshan, who was to us cadets a colossus beyond belief.
On the fixed day and time, the three cadets walked into
Rovers with two kit bags full of sports goods, with the intent to strike a deal
and make good with the money paid as compensation. The bags were opened and the
balls, clubs, rackets, stopwatches etc were laid out on the counter for the
deal to be sealed. The cadets were absolutely ignorant about the fact that they
had been sold out to Darshan by Mr Grover; who was all folded up and crouching
behind the very same counter on which the wares were displayed. Darshan, who was
quite updated on the nuances of law, waited for his chance to spring upon the
ill fated trio to catch them red handed with the stolen property. Darshan,
uncoiled himself from his perch behind the counter and sprung a surprise on the
cadets by grabbing the wrists of two and staring down the third with his
sardonic looks. The cadets were stunned by this surprise but were men enough to
take their apprehension with due dignity and elan. They were down but not out. This
was their learning curve to evolve into men from adolescents, who are
characterised by their delinquencies.
It is no surprise then that these cadets lived a full career
in the army and superannuated on retirement in the ranks of Lt Gen, Maj Gen and
Colonel.
Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal
