As soon as Ram Surat Yadav was told by the police that he had unwittingly harboured a cash van driver accused of fleeing with Rs.22.5 crore in a sensational heist last year, he knew he had erred in his judgement. He had slept on cash-laden boxes an entire night, believing that they contained plastic.
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Investigators had given the security guard a clean chit, but that helped little. The only solace in those troubled days was his firm belief that his employer — the owner of a warehouse in South Delhi’s Okhla — trusted him and would retain him for the job that he had been doing for 39 years.
Yadav’s trust was short-lived. He was relieved from duty in less than a fortnight of the heist that was possibly the biggest ever in terms of cash involved. “I was told that I had allowed a thief on the property. I told him that I would not allow even my father into the warehouse henceforth, but he wouldn’t listen. I worked here for 39 years, but was kicked out without a penny in my hands,” 60-year-old Yadav tells The Hindu .
Almost six months since then, he has been visiting the warehouse every single day, standing outside the iron gates for 10 hours, in the hope that he will be reinstated.
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Repeated attempts by The Hindu to seek his employer’s response failed.
Yadav had also approached a labour court in this connection, but that is of little help because he does not have any papers to show he was employed at the warehouse. “I sent a couple of notices to his employer. The response said that he (Yadav) was never employed by them,” said Sunil Kumar, a labour inspector.
Reward points
The Delhi Police entered the Limca Book of World Records for recovering the money, the police team received a cash reward, some of them got promotions, the security firm recovered its money.
Even the heist mastermind and executor, Pradeep Shukla, was released on bail within two months of being jailed.
Had it not been for the swift response by the South-East district police, Yadav could well be a dead man on the night of November 26. Investigators had quoted Shukla as confessing that he planned to kill Yadav before packing the nine boxes of cash in sacks and fleeing to Nepal.
Shukla, who had driven away a cash van holding all that cash, had landed at the Okhla warehouse where Yadav was a security guard.
Shukla had betrayed Yadav’s trust by telling him that the large boxes contained plastic that he was to transport to Benaras the next day. Yadav had allowed him in for the night until the police had knocked on the warehouse gates. Now, Yadav wishes, he had actually been killed that night.
“Who will offer me a job at this age? I have two young daughters back in my village (in Kanpur). Their marriage depends on me arranging a few thousand rupees,” Yadav tells The Hindu .
Meagre salary
He was drawing a meagre salary of Rs. 5,000 per month even after working at the warehouse since 1977, with a brief gap in between.
Since his was a 24X7 duty at the warehouse, he would manage to save Rs. 2,500 every month to send home. Having lost his job now, he is at the mercy of his married son who earns around Rs. 7,000.
“I live with my son now. But he has two school-going children, so it is unfair to expect much from him,” says Yadav.
Since he has no cash even to recharge his mobile phone, he makes sure he eats before leaving home around 8.30 a.m. so that he does not feel hungry for the next 10 hours.
“There was a time when we would knock on the warehouse gate to ask him for water. Now, we give him a bottle of water whenever he needs it,” says Vinay Bhardwaj, a driver in the area.
I worked here for 39 years, but was kicked out without a penny in my hands
He visits the warehouse every day, standing outside the iron gates for 10 hours, hoping he will be reinstated