“Dad, do you know any gold smugglers in Bhutan?”
“No, I don’t - but come to think of it - I did know few silver smugglers in my life”.
That abrupt, out-of-turn exchange of conversations transported my mind to the misty past - to a time when I was, willy-nilly, drawn into a situation that was truly - out of normal.
One morning sometime around 1991 - 1993, my phone rang (those days there was no mobile - we used the landline). From the other end of the phone line, I was asked ….
“Hi … is this Yeshey? Police SP Maj. Indra Pradhan here”
“Oh Hi Dasho … yes la, this is Yeshey”
“OK good … can you please come to Draduelmakhang RBP Headquarters?”
“Gachibey?”
“You have been identified as the surety/guarantor by one of your good friends currently under remand here at the Draduelmakhang”
“Remand??? Who? What for?”
“Come to the station … you will know everything”.
Bloody funny …. I did not fancy the idea of going to the police station – only criminals went there – or get taken there!! Anyway, I went.
At the police SP Indra Pradhan’s office, I was explained that my friend Neng Neng Dorji was taken into custody - for smuggling silver. There was a total of about 16 or 19 of them remanded for the same supposed crime of silver smuggling.
Regardless, either because of the wrong application of the written law, or because there was no law against carriage of silver into the country, or if there was any - there was no clearly defined punishment for it, or as a consequence of intervention from higher up, the RBP was ready to release the Terminators - upon paying fines or fees or penalties or duties - I think there was huge confusion as to what they were liable for - even of the fact that whether what they did was a crime.
Anyway, it seems that it was decided that the remandees would be let go - upon assurance of payment of some set amount of money. All that the RBP asked was that someone worthy sign a document - on behalf of the remandees - that in the event of non-realization of the amount, the guarantor signing on behalf of the remandee would make good the payment.
That is how good old Q Yeshey was drawn into the scene.
Ofcourse, I agreed to sign on behalf of my friend Neng Neng Dorji - not as an act of validation of his probity - but for the sake of our friendship that spanned over quarter of a century.
That settled, the police SP suggested something totally unexpected:
“Yeshey, come to think of it - now that you are here and are agreeable, why can’t you sign the document as guarantor for all of the 16/19 other Terminators who are held here for the same reason?”
I gawked!!
“Dasho Indra - are you suggesting that I am worthy of standing guarantor for 16/19 of the country’s biggest smugglers? Am I that good?”
“Yeshey, do not worry - it is merely a formality - we need the paper work”.
“But what if they decide to scoot and do not pay up? - my goose would be cooked, No?”
“I can assure you - you have nothing to fear. These guys are loaded to their eyeballs - you are in rock solid company - take a look here.”
He placed a leaf out of a bank cheque book on the table in front of me. The cheque was counter-signed and sealed by the Branch Manager of the Bank of Bhutan’s Paro Branch - the box where the amount is generally written in numbers was an absolute BLANK!
Police SP Indra gloated:
“See? This here is a blank cheque! This person on whose behalf the bank has counter-signed the cheque is so certain of the smuggler’s financial liquidity that the Bank of Bhutan guarantees any amount that we write on the cheque - just any amount!”
WOW!! Well, faced with that level of certainty and assurance, I had nothing to fear. So I agreed and signed the document - thereby making history for being the only person in the country - to be good enough to stand surety for 16/19 of the country's biggest smugglers!
That is how one hits one’s HIGH NOTE! Boy, am I proud of myself!
NOTE:
- Terminator: I use this term here because it was said that during those days when the smugglers walked in into the arrival hall of Paro airport, they would be noticed walking with the peculiar gait that resembled that of the Terminator – a Cyborg in the science fiction movie “The Terminator”. Apparently, the funny gait was caused by the weight of some 70-80 KGs of silver bars weighing down on them - concealed within their clothing.
- Much later I learnt that I was also on the verge of being pulled in for questioning by the RBP. Given my more than frequent travels to Singapore those days - so much so that Christopher Francis of Druk Air had named me CIP: Commercially Important Person - there was suspicion that I too may be involved in the silver smuggling affair. But the erstwhile senior Customs Officer T B Chettri is said to have assured the RBP that I was unlikely to be involved in the business of silver smuggling, or anything illegal.
