~By Tarquin. Meet Vikram SIngh, Private Investigator. He's an Indian version of Hercule Poirot with a Turino cap imported from Manchester (he has a collection of 20) and a handlebar moustache (form his military intelligence days). I took this photograph of him in Delhi's busy INA market. It was there that he caught one of India's most successful fraudsters, a Sikh who swindled several SIngapore banks out of $24 million dollars.
Singh was hired by the banks after the Sikh went to ground in India. It took the PI four months to track him down to Chandigarh in the Punjab.
“Like all Punjabis, he had a weakness for Mercedes-Benz,” said Singh, who was named “Investigator of the Year 2006” for cracking the case. “I knew this Charlie would not be able to resist buying one. When I checked the purchase records, I found him listed under an alias, PPS Gill.”
"I was dealing with a most slippery fellow,” continued Singh. “If I had arrested him in Chandigarh, he would have easily bought off the local Punjabi police. For $1m, they would have personally escorted him to the airport and waved him off. So I bided my time until he visited Delhi. Then I sprang my trap.”
Retracing his steps through INA market, the private investigator showed me the spot where he and his undercover operatives closed in on Gill. “I made a citizen’s arrest, the first in the history of India,” he said. But the fugitive did not come quietly; he knocked the detective to the ground and bolted. A chase ensued through the crowded alleyways with the fleeing Sikh toppling over boxes, suitcases and cages of chickens in a desperate bid to block the path of his pursuers.
“It was like a Bollywood film,” said Singh. “When we finally caught him, he offered me half his fortune to let him go free. I told him: ‘Listen Charlie, you are a crook. Only God can decide whether a man should be rich or poor.’ After he was extradited to Singapore, he told people at his arraignment: ‘There is a madman in India called Vikram Singh who does not know the value of $12m’.”
To read my article on Singh and India's private detectives in today's Sunday Times click on HERE.
"Listen Charlie, you are a crook." I've never been to India but I love the slightly archaic form of English they seem to favour. Great stuff!
Posted by: Paul Coletti | 04 February 2007 at 01:00 PM
Fantastic! Sounds like a story straight out of a Hollywood flick. Wish I meet somebody like Vikram Singh (or better, Vikram Singh himself!) someday. But although the detective is undoubtedly smart, I really wonder how the fraudster managed to swindle so many banks of so much money.
Posted by: witnwisdumb | 04 February 2007 at 03:48 PM
I liked the segment on Private Investigators in India. We need more people like that in North America.
Posted by: Roberto Alvarez-Galloso | 07 February 2007 at 03:50 AM
Actually, reminds me more of Inspector Ghote than Poirot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Ghote
Posted by: Anony | 08 February 2007 at 12:10 PM
The link to Sunday Times does not work anymore. Any chance you can post the entire piece on your website? Thx!
Posted by: Anony | 14 February 2007 at 10:28 AM