Zero Dial The Dangerous World of Informers by Jyotirmoy Dey

Book Review of Zero Dial: The Dangerous World of Informers by Jyotirmoy Dey (J Dey)

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Zero Dial: The Dangerous World of Informers by Jyotirmoy Dey is a comprehensive study on the role of police informers in solving complicated criminal cases. This book is the result of Dey’s long years of working as a crime reporter for Mid Day. The two books Zero Dial: The Dangerous World of Informers and Khallas – an A to Z Guide to the Underworld contained something that provoked the wrath of Chhota Rajan who eventually hired killers to eliminate the author. But that’s altogether a different story.  Informers are known by many names. Khabri, zero dial or simply zero – they all mean the same thing. Sometimes a don make a circle with his index and thumb. It means - Watch out! There’s an informer among us. The informers are often part of the underworld themselves – gangsters, robbers, thieves or drug-peddlers. Sometimes they are loyal to one gang, like Ahmad in this book. Sometimes they are loyal to whoever offers a better price, like Rahim. Their most notable feature is being featureless, inconspicuous. They blend in with any environment. Sun Tzu had said, “War is all about deception.” The khabris may not have heard about The Art of War. But they were master-strategists. They are so secretive that often their wives don’t know about their work.  

While penning the acknowledgements for this book, I asked an informer if I could mention his name. He readily agreed, without so much as a second thought. Naturally, having adhered to the code of secrecy all these years, I asked him curiously whether he wasn’t afraid of being exposed. “Saab, nobody knows my real name,” he exclaimed, smiling gleefully.

Zero Dial: The Dangerous World of Informers by J. Dey revolves around a terror suspect Ryaz Bhatkal who since 2004 had triggered serial bomb blasts in at least six Indian states. Ahmad an informer arrived at Ani-Terrorism Squad headquarters with some valuable information on Ryaz Bhatkal. There he met ACP Surinder Singh. Shortly after their meeting Ahmad passed on three numbers of Bhatkal’s operatives to ATS. Those numbers were promptly placed under surveillance. At that time police had little experience in dealing with home grown terrors which was vastly different from dealing with the underworld. Armed with Intelligence information the officers zeroed in on Bhatkal. They raided a lodge in Mangalore. The operation failed. Ryaz gave them the slip. Ryaz was trained in Pakistan by ISI. He was no small player. He had his own informers.

Zero Dial: The Dangerous World of Informers goes far beyond the professional life of informers. The politics among themselves, their personal problems, betrayal – this book deals with all. When IB, RAW, ATS and Crime Branch are putting all their resources together to hunt down Bhatkal, Ahmad had to deal with his own problems. Shabbir, his infant son was suffering from chronic pneumonia. The treatment was expensive. Doctor asked Rs. 10,000 for the surgery. Depending on the quality of information an informer’s income varied from around Rs. 5,000 to several lakhs per month. There were informers like Rahim who was so rich that they could employ a number of junior informers under him. Most others, like Ahmad, lived in abject poverty. Rs. 10, 000 was quite a lot of money for Ahmad. He begged help from the officers. He even asked Rahim. Once, in Thane Jail, Ahmad had saved Rahim from Rao’s men. Now, instead of helping him, Rahim suggested he should switch sides. In his time of need, Ahmad found himself deserted. There was only one thing that could get him that kind of money – Ryaz Bhatkal.

J. Dey, as the author was known in media circle was gunned down on 11^th June, 2011 by some assailants who, it was later discovered, were employed by Rajendra Sadasiv Nikalje aka Chhota Rajan. During this time Jyotirmoy Dey was working on his book Chindi – Rags to Riches. It was a compilation of stories of 20 gangsters. Chhota Rajan was one of them. Rajan got life imprisonment for killing the journalist. He later confessed,

Dey continued writing stories against me... that my gang has become weak; I'm keeping sick; my loyal people have left me, etc. Hence I got an impression that he was working for the Dawood gang. I tried to convince him, but he didn't listen. I'm not sure whether he really was close to Dawood. But his writings made me feel like that.   

(Source: The Quint)

It was difficult to say whether Rajan was being truthful. During the investigation another name Jigna Vora came up. Perhaps I’ll discuss about it some other time, in some other article. In Zero Dial: The Dangerous World of Informers, the author himself had admitted that his work demanded close connection with the underworld. Zero Dial, said Dey, is not a product of my imagination. It took years to gather these stories, pamper my informers, win their confidence, and get them to tell me more. He had shortlisted three informers, who he considered were the best in the profession. He closely observed them for years. He met his families and children. In his book, the informers don’t appear like mechanical pieces that lose their identities to fit somewhere in a large system of things. They are men gifted with superb intelligence, yet to the ordinary citizens like us, they don’t exist.  

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