WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.760 Imagine for a second that you're taking your 00:00:01.760 --> 00:00:05.200 car in for a routine tune -up. OK, sure. You 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.259 hand the keys over to your friendly, reliable 00:00:08.259 --> 00:00:10.939 neighborhood mechanic. He's a guy you see every 00:00:10.939 --> 00:00:12.919 week. He asks about your kids. He complains about 00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:16.649 his bad back. He does really solid. honest work. 00:00:16.949 --> 00:00:19.289 Right, just a normal part of your everyday routine. 00:00:19.570 --> 00:00:22.269 Exactly. Now imagine waking up the next day turning 00:00:22.269 --> 00:00:24.530 on the morning news and finding out that this 00:00:24.530 --> 00:00:27.710 exact same mechanic, the guy who literally just 00:00:27.710 --> 00:00:30.829 changed your oil, is secretly operating as a 00:00:30.829 --> 00:00:32.929 highly feared political assassin on the weekends. 00:00:33.210 --> 00:00:36.270 Oh, wow. Yeah, that is, I mean, that's just a 00:00:36.270 --> 00:00:38.890 massive, almost incomprehensible mental leap 00:00:38.890 --> 00:00:40.570 to make. It really is. You would immediately 00:00:40.570 --> 00:00:42.609 ask yourself, like, how does a person even begin 00:00:42.609 --> 00:00:45.429 to live that kind of double life? Well, it completely 00:00:45.429 --> 00:00:48.250 shatters your baseline understanding of how society 00:00:48.250 --> 00:00:50.750 operates. You know, you assume there's this massive 00:00:50.750 --> 00:00:54.350 impenetrable wall between everyday blue collar 00:00:54.350 --> 00:00:57.590 life and the high stakes violent underworld. 00:00:57.649 --> 00:01:00.109 You'd think so, yeah. But historically, that 00:01:00.109 --> 00:01:02.700 wall is actually incredibly porous. And that 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:04.900 porous wall is exactly what we are exploring 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:07.540 today. Welcome to today's deep dive. Glad to 00:01:07.540 --> 00:01:09.359 be here. We are thrilled to have you listening 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:11.819 with us as we pull back the curtain on a truly 00:01:11.819 --> 00:01:15.099 bizarre true crime trajectory. So our grounding 00:01:15.099 --> 00:01:18.040 source for this entire discussion is a deeply 00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:21.079 detailed Wikipedia article. Right. And it chronicles 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:24.459 the life, the rapid escalation and the incredibly 00:01:24.459 --> 00:01:27.140 violent death of an Indian criminal. Yeah. A 00:01:27.140 --> 00:01:29.519 guy known to the public simply as Weldon Kumar. 00:01:29.900 --> 00:01:32.939 And our mission today is to track this man's 00:01:32.939 --> 00:01:35.840 unbelievable transition from a working class 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:38.299 tradesman to a politically connected enforcer. 00:01:38.540 --> 00:01:41.519 And finally to a ruthless kingpin operating a 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:44.040 deeply lucrative hustle behind bars. Oh, it's 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:46.120 just wild. It really is a story that forces you 00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:48.239 to look at how crime actually functions in the 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:49.920 real world. We aren't just going to give you 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:51.680 a timeline of what this man did. Right. We want 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:53.299 to look at the mechanics behind his actions. 00:01:53.620 --> 00:01:56.319 Exactly. We want to show you how his very specific 00:01:56.319 --> 00:01:59.239 trajectory illustrates the invisible, tightly 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:02.790 woven ties between everyday manual labor, political 00:02:02.790 --> 00:02:06.849 muscle, and the complex micro economies of the 00:02:06.849 --> 00:02:09.409 maximum security prison system. Let's start by 00:02:09.409 --> 00:02:12.550 establishing his baseline because on paper his 00:02:12.550 --> 00:02:16.719 origins are just... Oh, they're so entirely unremarkable. 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:19.120 Yeah, he wasn't born into some notorious crime 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:21.979 family. Not at all. He was born Jack Kumar. He 00:02:21.979 --> 00:02:23.759 lived on Navalar Street, which is near an area 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:26.120 called Kurukku Pettai in the city of Chennai. 00:02:26.180 --> 00:02:28.860 A pretty standard background. Totally. And he 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:30.960 was a family man. He was married to a woman named 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:34.159 Shanti. And he was a father to a daughter Divya 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:37.780 and a son, Sushil Kumar. Right. And he started 00:02:37.780 --> 00:02:40.300 his professional life with a legitimate physically 00:02:40.300 --> 00:02:44.240 demanding trade. He was literally a welder. in 00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:46.379 the Kandiyarpet neighborhood. Which is important 00:02:46.379 --> 00:02:48.740 context because Kandiyarpet is traditionally 00:02:48.740 --> 00:02:52.020 a very bustling industrial working -class hub 00:02:52.020 --> 00:02:54.319 in northern Chennai. It's a tough area. It is. 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:56.219 It's the kind of place where you make your living 00:02:56.219 --> 00:02:59.039 through sweat and physical endurance. So Jay 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:01.020 Kumar is operating in this environment building 00:03:01.020 --> 00:03:03.419 a standard blue -collar life. Right up until 00:03:03.419 --> 00:03:05.780 he isn't. Exactly. Because from that everyday 00:03:05.780 --> 00:03:09.099 background Jay Kumar somehow amasses a rap sheet 00:03:09.099 --> 00:03:14.539 of 25 different criminal cases. 25. It's a staggering 00:03:14.539 --> 00:03:17.000 number. And we aren't talking about petty thefts 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:20.439 here. The source details that his record included 00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:23.960 four murders. Four, yeah. It is just wild to 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:27.120 me that a man's legitimate blue collar trade 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:30.259 literally became his criminal moniker. Right, 00:03:30.300 --> 00:03:33.020 he didn't get some nickname based on a physical 00:03:33.020 --> 00:03:35.439 trait. Or like a scary mob alias. The underworld 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:38.969 just simply called him Welding Kumar. OK, let's 00:03:38.969 --> 00:03:41.129 unpack this, because it is one thing to have 00:03:41.129 --> 00:03:42.789 a rough background, but it's a totally different 00:03:42.789 --> 00:03:45.569 thing to become a prolific killer. What's fascinating 00:03:45.569 --> 00:03:48.449 here is the underlying sociology of that specific 00:03:48.449 --> 00:03:50.870 leap. When we look at the evolution of organized 00:03:50.870 --> 00:03:53.250 crime, especially in rapidly industrializing 00:03:53.250 --> 00:03:55.830 urban centers, we often find that it heavily 00:03:55.830 --> 00:03:58.400 recruits from working class trades. Really? Just 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:00.280 from normal trade? Yeah. I mean, think about 00:04:00.280 --> 00:04:02.360 the raw skill set of a welder in a place like 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:05.180 Tondiarpit. It requires significant physical 00:04:05.180 --> 00:04:09.240 strength, high endurance, and an extreme comfort 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:11.939 level with dangerous heavy tools. OK, I see where 00:04:11.939 --> 00:04:13.580 you are. Plus, you just need a certain degree 00:04:13.580 --> 00:04:16.879 of psychological grit to get through a grueling 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:19.019 workday in that heat. Wait, I have to push back 00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:21.459 a little there. Go for it. I mean, a lot of trades 00:04:21.459 --> 00:04:24.490 require physical endurance and grit. roofers, 00:04:24.649 --> 00:04:27.750 bricklayers, dock workers. But 99 % of those 00:04:27.750 --> 00:04:30.589 guys just go home tired. They don't become murderers 00:04:30.589 --> 00:04:33.110 with 25 criminal cases. That's a very fair point. 00:04:33.829 --> 00:04:36.490 So what is the specific mechanism that pulls 00:04:36.490 --> 00:04:40.050 someone like Kumar over the edge into organized 00:04:40.050 --> 00:04:42.949 crime? That is the crucial question. And the 00:04:42.949 --> 00:04:45.750 mechanism is the patron client system of regional 00:04:45.750 --> 00:04:48.350 politics and organized syndicates. OK, break 00:04:48.350 --> 00:04:50.970 that down for us. Well, when corrupt political 00:04:50.970 --> 00:04:55.029 figures or black market operators look for muscle 00:04:55.029 --> 00:04:57.110 for people to physically enforce their will, 00:04:57.310 --> 00:04:59.089 they don't look in corporate boardrooms. Right. 00:04:59.149 --> 00:05:01.149 Definitely not. They need individuals who are 00:05:01.149 --> 00:05:03.569 already accustomed to a hard physical reality. 00:05:04.050 --> 00:05:06.529 A politician cannot afford to be seen threatening 00:05:06.529 --> 00:05:08.769 a rival or a witness. Because of the optics. 00:05:09.269 --> 00:05:11.949 Exactly. They need a of plausible deniability. 00:05:12.089 --> 00:05:14.389 So, they essentially subcontract the violence 00:05:14.389 --> 00:05:17.750 out. Wow. They find a local tough guy, perhaps 00:05:17.750 --> 00:05:19.810 someone who got into a few street brawls and 00:05:19.810 --> 00:05:21.850 proved he could handle himself, and they offer 00:05:21.850 --> 00:05:24.670 him a premium to handle a problem. And for a 00:05:24.670 --> 00:05:28.089 welder scraping by, that sudden influx of cash... 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:31.259 has got to be intoxicating. Intoxicating and 00:05:31.259 --> 00:05:33.199 empowering. You suddenly become the insulated 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:35.560 weapon for someone much higher up the food chain. 00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:39.000 And Kumar clearly embraced that role. I mean, 00:05:39.180 --> 00:05:41.240 the Deccan Chronicle, which is a major English 00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:44.019 language daily newspaper in India, literally 00:05:44.019 --> 00:05:47.139 described him as a henchman for some Tamil Nadu 00:05:47.139 --> 00:05:49.680 politicians. Which means it wasn't a secret. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.199 No, he wasn't just a freelance thug. He was recognized 00:05:53.199 --> 00:05:55.420 political muscle. and he built that reputation 00:05:55.420 --> 00:05:58.040 with a terrifying level of escalation. Right, 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:01.139 his track record gets very dark, very fast. The 00:06:01.139 --> 00:06:03.180 source material notes he was accused of killing 00:06:03.180 --> 00:06:06.540 a man named Rajakrishnan in 1985 and another 00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:10.259 individual named Lambamani in 1992. And those 00:06:10.259 --> 00:06:12.360 fatal encounters were just the tip of the iceberg, 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:14.399 honestly. The way he operated on the streets 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:16.879 tells us a lot about his psychology. How so? 00:06:16.980 --> 00:06:19.600 Well, the source details a pattern of incredibly 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:21.959 brazen assaults. For instance, he attacked a 00:06:21.959 --> 00:06:24.600 figure known as Chara, and he did it inside a 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:26.459 court complex. Which is just staggering when 00:06:26.459 --> 00:06:28.459 you think about it. It really is. If you've ever 00:06:28.459 --> 00:06:31.839 been to a major Indian court complex, you know 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:34.579 it is crawling with police officers, judges, 00:06:34.819 --> 00:06:38.500 lawyers, security. It's the literal physical 00:06:38.500 --> 00:06:41.129 epicenter. of the state's law and order. Right, 00:06:41.350 --> 00:06:43.649 so attacking someone there isn't just a regular 00:06:43.649 --> 00:06:46.649 crime. No, it's a blatant disregard for the state's 00:06:46.649 --> 00:06:48.970 authority. Exactly. It's performative violence. 00:06:49.290 --> 00:06:51.629 It's about sending a message. Showing everyone 00:06:51.629 --> 00:06:54.209 he's untouchable. Yeah. And he also attacked 00:06:54.209 --> 00:06:57.670 a man named Viramani from Ayyotha Kuppam. Okay, 00:06:57.990 --> 00:07:00.250 what's the significance of that area? So, for 00:07:00.250 --> 00:07:03.670 context, Ayotthu Kupam is a neighborhood in Chennai, 00:07:03.970 --> 00:07:06.550 historically a fishing hamlet, that at the time 00:07:06.550 --> 00:07:09.009 had a very rough, formidable reputation of its 00:07:09.009 --> 00:07:11.430 own. Oh, so going after someone from there is 00:07:11.430 --> 00:07:13.949 a calculated show of dominance. Precisely. You 00:07:13.949 --> 00:07:16.209 don't pick a fight there unless you want everyone 00:07:16.209 --> 00:07:18.290 to know you're the biggest threat around. He 00:07:18.290 --> 00:07:20.529 was also involved in an attack against a lawyer 00:07:20.529 --> 00:07:22.829 named Vijan while that lawyer was simply on his 00:07:22.829 --> 00:07:24.709 way to court. You can really see the pattern 00:07:24.709 --> 00:07:28.370 forming here. He targets rivals and legal figures 00:07:28.370 --> 00:07:30.990 in highly visible areas. Building that brand 00:07:30.990 --> 00:07:34.689 of fear. Yeah. He becomes a known feared entity 00:07:34.689 --> 00:07:39.069 on the streets. 25 cases. four murders. But usually 00:07:39.069 --> 00:07:41.370 that level of violence, while completely horrific, 00:07:41.569 --> 00:07:44.089 keeps you somewhat localized. Right. It makes 00:07:44.089 --> 00:07:46.569 you a huge priority for the local police precinct, 00:07:46.569 --> 00:07:48.250 but it doesn't necessarily make you a household 00:07:48.250 --> 00:07:50.550 name across an entire state of millions of people. 00:07:50.670 --> 00:07:53.290 Until you cross an invisible line. Exactly. Until 00:07:53.290 --> 00:07:55.529 we hit the tipping point. This is the moment 00:07:55.529 --> 00:07:58.629 where Kumar's violence intersected with the absolute 00:07:58.629 --> 00:08:01.470 highest levels of regional government. May 30th, 00:08:01.589 --> 00:08:05.509 1995. Yes. This is the attack on our Shanmugasundaram. 00:08:05.689 --> 00:08:09.209 who was a lawyer for the DMK. Now the DMK is 00:08:09.209 --> 00:08:11.829 one of the major regional political parties in 00:08:11.829 --> 00:08:14.209 Tamil Nadu. And this wasn't just a random mugging 00:08:14.209 --> 00:08:17.009 gone wrong? No. This specific lawyer was actively 00:08:17.009 --> 00:08:19.389 preparing a case against the then chief minister 00:08:19.389 --> 00:08:22.250 of the state, Jayalalitha, regarding something 00:08:22.250 --> 00:08:24.689 called the Tanisai land scam. And just a quick 00:08:24.689 --> 00:08:26.389 pause here for you listening, because context 00:08:26.389 --> 00:08:28.550 is everything with this story. The Tanisai case 00:08:28.550 --> 00:08:31.050 involved allegations regarding state -owned industrial 00:08:31.050 --> 00:08:33.269 land, and it is a deeply complex, historically 00:08:33.269 --> 00:08:35.830 charged issue in Indian politics. Very much so. 00:08:35.960 --> 00:08:38.320 We want to make it incredibly clear that we aren't 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:40.320 here to take a political side on that scandal, 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:42.960 and we are remaining strictly impartial regarding 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:46.299 the intense rivalry between the DMK and Jayalika. 00:08:46.820 --> 00:08:49.620 Our focus is purely on tracking how Kumar's violent 00:08:49.620 --> 00:08:52.100 trajectory was deployed as a tool within this 00:08:52.100 --> 00:08:54.539 massive political earthquake. Beautifully said. 00:08:55.100 --> 00:08:57.100 The mechanics of the crime are what matter to 00:08:57.100 --> 00:09:00.440 us today. Right. So Kumar attacks this lawyer 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:02.899 who is building a corruption case against the 00:09:02.899 --> 00:09:05.669 sitting chief minister. He leaves the lawyer 00:09:05.669 --> 00:09:08.690 severely injured. And as a direct result, the 00:09:08.690 --> 00:09:11.730 entire state's legal apparatus goes into an absolute 00:09:11.730 --> 00:09:13.850 uproar. You have to look at the cause and effect 00:09:13.850 --> 00:09:16.649 here. When an enforcer attacks a lawyer who is 00:09:16.649 --> 00:09:18.830 actively working on anti -corruption litigation 00:09:18.830 --> 00:09:21.129 against the head of the state, it ceases to be 00:09:21.129 --> 00:09:22.850 a street crime. It's an attack on the system. 00:09:23.289 --> 00:09:25.370 Exactly. It becomes an assault on the democratic 00:09:25.370 --> 00:09:27.809 and judicial process itself. The system simply 00:09:27.809 --> 00:09:29.929 cannot ignore it. Here's where it gets really 00:09:29.929 --> 00:09:32.990 interesting. Because the heat from this attack 00:09:33.230 --> 00:09:36.730 brings in the CBI. The big guns. Right. The Central 00:09:36.730 --> 00:09:38.769 Bureau of Investigation, which is essentially 00:09:38.769 --> 00:09:41.710 India's premier federal investigating agency, 00:09:42.169 --> 00:09:44.889 they step in and they put a bounty on Welding 00:09:44.889 --> 00:09:47.610 Kumar's head. Which shows how serious this became. 00:09:48.070 --> 00:09:51.029 But the source explicitly states the bounty was 00:09:51.029 --> 00:09:54.250 for three thousand rupees. Now you have to help 00:09:54.250 --> 00:09:56.789 me make sense of this because my first reaction 00:09:56.789 --> 00:09:59.370 reading that. was to do a double -take. I don't 00:09:59.370 --> 00:10:01.509 blame you. Even adjusting for inflation back 00:10:01.509 --> 00:10:05.549 to 1995, 3 ,000 rupees does not sound like the 00:10:05.549 --> 00:10:07.870 kind of massive set -yourself -up -for -life 00:10:07.870 --> 00:10:10.629 reward you see in Hollywood movies. Was this 00:10:10.629 --> 00:10:12.429 just a desperate scramble by the authorities 00:10:12.429 --> 00:10:15.429 trying to squeeze out a quick tip? It is a brilliant 00:10:15.429 --> 00:10:17.610 detail to highlight because it shows how law 00:10:17.610 --> 00:10:19.850 enforcement actually disrupts criminal networks 00:10:19.850 --> 00:10:23.129 on a budget. You are correct. Even in 1995, 3 00:10:23.129 --> 00:10:25.669 ,000 rupees wasn't a king's ransom. Right. It's 00:10:25.669 --> 00:10:28.000 not retiring on a beach money. Not at all. But 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:30.480 you aren't trying to bribe a millionaire cartel 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:33.639 boss here. In the context of street level informants, 00:10:33.940 --> 00:10:36.980 a bounty like that serves a highly specific surgical 00:10:36.980 --> 00:10:40.019 purpose. OK, like what? It is designed to entice 00:10:40.019 --> 00:10:42.919 the lowest level associates. The guy who buys 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:45.720 the burner phones, the guy who runs daily errands 00:10:45.720 --> 00:10:48.759 people who might gladly turn on a scary colleague 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:51.759 to cover a month's rent or get some quick cash. 00:10:51.799 --> 00:10:54.259 Oh, that makes total sense. It acts like a virus 00:10:54.259 --> 00:10:57.429 in the network. Suddenly, Kumar can't trust the 00:10:57.429 --> 00:10:59.590 people bringing him his food or driving his car. 00:11:00.049 --> 00:11:02.870 Precisely. It injects paranoia into his daily 00:11:02.870 --> 00:11:05.750 life. It signals to the entire underworld that 00:11:05.750 --> 00:11:08.289 the federal state has made this individual a 00:11:08.289 --> 00:11:10.809 priority target. And nobody wants to stand next 00:11:10.809 --> 00:11:12.929 to the guy with the target on his back. Exactly. 00:11:13.210 --> 00:11:15.909 In the criminal ecosystem, associating with a 00:11:15.909 --> 00:11:18.350 priority target is incredibly bad for business. 00:11:18.690 --> 00:11:21.250 It isolates him completely. And he was already 00:11:21.250 --> 00:11:23.690 feeling the heat because the attack infuriated 00:11:23.690 --> 00:11:27.090 the entire law community in Tamil Nadu. The source 00:11:27.090 --> 00:11:30.370 notes it evoked statewide protests. Lawyers literally 00:11:30.370 --> 00:11:32.350 took to the streets. And when lawyers protest, 00:11:32.769 --> 00:11:34.889 the courts stop functioning. The justice system 00:11:34.889 --> 00:11:37.470 just grinds to a halt. You don't physically assault 00:11:37.470 --> 00:11:39.730 a lawyer building a case against the chief minister 00:11:39.730 --> 00:11:41.529 and expect to go back to your safe house quietly. 00:11:41.690 --> 00:11:44.409 The sheer audacity of the attack forced the Justice 00:11:44.409 --> 00:11:47.090 Sister's hand. When you operate in the shadows, 00:11:47.210 --> 00:11:50.610 you survive. When you spark statewide protests 00:11:50.610 --> 00:11:53.330 by the very people who run the courts, the system 00:11:53.330 --> 00:11:55.950 will mobilize every resource to process you. 00:11:56.149 --> 00:11:58.649 And process him, they did. They absolutely did. 00:11:58.809 --> 00:12:01.009 Kumar was convicted by a local court for the 00:12:01.009 --> 00:12:03.769 attacks on both Radhakrishnan and the DMK lawyer, 00:12:03.990 --> 00:12:07.110 Sharmugasundaram. The sentence was life in prison. 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:09.740 a ruling that was later upheld and confirmed 00:12:09.740 --> 00:12:13.360 by the high court. Which usually, for like 99 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:15.840 % of the stories we cover, is the end of the 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:18.360 line. Right. Hearing a judge hand down a life 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:20.960 in prison sentence closes the book. The criminal 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:23.580 is removed from society, their influence is systematically 00:12:23.580 --> 00:12:26.600 neutralized, and they fade into the gray background 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:29.139 of the penal system. They lose their agency entirely. 00:12:29.240 --> 00:12:31.779 They become subjects of the state. But not Kumar. 00:12:32.039 --> 00:12:34.500 No, definitely not him. For welding Kumar, the 00:12:34.500 --> 00:12:36.419 prison walls didn't act as a deterrent. They 00:12:36.419 --> 00:12:39.500 just provided him with a new highly concentrated 00:12:39.500 --> 00:12:42.740 captive territory, which brings us to the final 00:12:42.740 --> 00:12:45.519 and honestly the most mind bending chapter of 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:49.100 his life. His empire behind bars. Exactly. The 00:12:49.100 --> 00:12:52.360 evolution from a political enforcer on the outside 00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:56.320 to a monopolizing racketeer on the inside. The 00:12:56.320 --> 00:12:58.559 source material mapping out his time inside is 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:01.639 Almost hard to believe. So he is serving a life 00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:05.440 sentence. His life is theoretically over, but 00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:07.440 he just keeps going. He doesn't slow down at 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:10.080 all. The Wikipedia article details that he attacks 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:12.840 a man named John Pandian while he is locked up 00:13:12.840 --> 00:13:15.600 in Cuddalore jail. Right. Then he attacks a man 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:18.139 named V. McTuffin does on while he is locked 00:13:18.139 --> 00:13:21.879 up in Salem jail. I have to ask this on behalf 00:13:21.879 --> 00:13:24.279 of everyone listening right now. Go ahead. How 00:13:24.279 --> 00:13:26.460 does a guy who is already serving a life sentence? 00:13:26.750 --> 00:13:29.210 Someone who is globally known as a high -risk 00:13:29.210 --> 00:13:31.389 offender for a massively high -profile political 00:13:31.389 --> 00:13:34.230 attack Managed to keep assaulting high -profile 00:13:34.230 --> 00:13:37.230 targets across multiple entirely different maximum 00:13:37.230 --> 00:13:39.509 security facilities It sounds like he's on a 00:13:39.509 --> 00:13:42.090 bizarre violent prison tour honestly really does 00:13:42.090 --> 00:13:45.009 if we connect this to the bigger picture It reveals 00:13:45.009 --> 00:13:47.690 a very harsh uncomfortable truth about the mechanics 00:13:47.690 --> 00:13:50.480 of the penal system When an individual is serving 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:54.059 a life sentence, the traditional structural deterrence 00:13:54.059 --> 00:13:56.659 of the justice system immediately lose their 00:13:56.659 --> 00:13:59.519 power. Because what are you going to do threaten 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:02.600 a lifer with more life? Exactly. The currency 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:06.460 of time is worthless to them. Furthermore, Kumar 00:14:06.460 --> 00:14:09.159 entered the prison system not as an anonymous 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:12.539 petty thief, but as a highly notorious enforcer 00:14:12.539 --> 00:14:15.440 with confirmed ties to the highest levels of 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:18.259 state politics. Ah, so his reputation preceded 00:14:18.259 --> 00:14:22.190 him. immensely. Inside the walls, that reputation 00:14:22.190 --> 00:14:26.049 is tangible currency. Prison ecosystems are inherently 00:14:26.049 --> 00:14:28.809 fragile. The staff are often underpaid, they're 00:14:28.809 --> 00:14:31.870 vastly outnumbered, and they are managing incredibly 00:14:31.870 --> 00:14:34.490 dangerous populations. A powder keg, basically. 00:14:34.730 --> 00:14:37.990 Right. When you introduce a hyper -violent inmate 00:14:37.990 --> 00:14:40.110 who fundamentally has nothing to lose and who 00:14:40.110 --> 00:14:42.470 knows exactly how to leverage fear, they can 00:14:42.470 --> 00:14:45.090 easily manipulate, bribe, or intimidate their 00:14:45.090 --> 00:14:47.370 way into continuing their behavior. So they don't 00:14:47.370 --> 00:14:49.639 even see the prison as a punishment? No. They 00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:52.120 see it as a new marketplace with a captive customer 00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:54.220 base. And it seems like the state's only solution 00:14:54.220 --> 00:14:56.500 was to just keep moving him around, like a geographic 00:14:56.500 --> 00:14:58.940 bandaid. Just passing the problem to the next 00:14:58.940 --> 00:15:01.379 warden. The source tracks him from Cuddalore 00:15:01.379 --> 00:15:04.519 to Salem to Coimbatore, and finally he gets transferred 00:15:04.519 --> 00:15:07.500 to Poushal Prison. This transfer happens just 00:15:07.500 --> 00:15:10.100 two months before his death. June 10th, 2009. 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:14.289 Yeah. When he's around 47 or 48 years old, Kumar's 00:15:14.289 --> 00:15:17.049 violent journey finally ends. He is attacked 00:15:17.049 --> 00:15:19.789 and killed by his fellow inmates inside Pusall 00:15:19.789 --> 00:15:23.190 Prison. A brutal end to a remarkably brutal life, 00:15:23.490 --> 00:15:25.789 but we really have to look closely at why he 00:15:25.789 --> 00:15:28.210 was killed. Yes, because the motive provided 00:15:28.210 --> 00:15:30.470 by the prison officials is what truly anchors 00:15:30.470 --> 00:15:33.549 this entire story in the grim realities of organized 00:15:33.549 --> 00:15:37.129 crime. It wasn't about his past. No, this detail 00:15:37.129 --> 00:15:39.889 blew my mind. He wasn't killed over an old street 00:15:39.889 --> 00:15:42.409 rivalry from his Tandiyarpit days. He wasn't 00:15:42.409 --> 00:15:44.490 assassinated as political retribution for the 00:15:44.490 --> 00:15:47.009 Tanisai case lawyer attack. None of that. Pooh's 00:15:47.009 --> 00:15:48.769 Hall prison officials stated that his murder 00:15:48.769 --> 00:15:51.049 was the direct result of hostility created by 00:15:51.049 --> 00:15:53.690 a very specific lucrative racket he had forcefully 00:15:53.690 --> 00:15:56.429 taken over. The mobile phone racket. Right. He 00:15:56.429 --> 00:16:00.370 had forcefully monopolized a system where well 00:16:00.370 --> 00:16:03.690 -to -do remand prisoners deposited their mobile 00:16:03.690 --> 00:16:06.529 phones with convicts and they paid a premium 00:16:06.529 --> 00:16:09.190 fee for the service. This is where we see the 00:16:09.190 --> 00:16:11.990 absolute unfiltered microeconomy of the prison 00:16:11.990 --> 00:16:15.049 system at work. Let's break down the mechanics 00:16:15.049 --> 00:16:17.570 of this racket because it is deeply revealing 00:16:17.570 --> 00:16:22.110 about human ingenuity and corruption. I'm all 00:16:22.110 --> 00:16:25.190 ears. So you have remand prisoners. These are 00:16:25.190 --> 00:16:27.230 individuals who are locked up, but they are still 00:16:27.230 --> 00:16:29.190 awaiting trial. They haven't been officially 00:16:29.190 --> 00:16:31.190 convicted of their current charges yet. Right, 00:16:31.309 --> 00:16:33.970 they're in limbo. Exactly. And many of these 00:16:33.970 --> 00:16:36.090 remand prisoners might be wealthy businessmen, 00:16:36.350 --> 00:16:38.610 or they might be sophisticated syndicate leaders 00:16:38.610 --> 00:16:41.009 who still have massive criminal empires to manage 00:16:41.009 --> 00:16:43.309 on the outside. For those guys, being cut off 00:16:43.309 --> 00:16:45.389 from communication isn't just an inconvenience. 00:16:45.470 --> 00:16:48.350 It's a total operational collapse. A mobile phone 00:16:48.350 --> 00:16:50.750 inside a prison is more valuable than gold to 00:16:50.750 --> 00:16:53.129 them. It is their absolute lifeline. But I'm 00:16:53.129 --> 00:16:54.830 guessing they can't just keep these contraband 00:16:54.830 --> 00:16:57.250 phones sitting out on their beds. Oh, definitely 00:16:57.250 --> 00:16:59.669 not. Remand prisoners are constantly moving. 00:17:00.090 --> 00:17:02.450 They're being pulled out of their cells for interrogations. 00:17:02.789 --> 00:17:04.730 They're being transported back and forth to court 00:17:04.730 --> 00:17:07.130 hearings. And they are subjected to frequent, 00:17:07.490 --> 00:17:09.849 rigorous shakedowns by the guards. So the risk 00:17:09.849 --> 00:17:12.589 of confiscation is incredibly high for them. 00:17:12.700 --> 00:17:15.880 Exactly. So what is the black market solution 00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:18.279 to that problem? You outsource the risk? You 00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:20.900 hit the nail on the head. It is remarkably similar 00:17:20.900 --> 00:17:24.380 to modern offshore banking or unregulated cloud 00:17:24.380 --> 00:17:27.369 storage, but applied to prison contraband. That's 00:17:27.369 --> 00:17:29.170 a wild comparison, but it makes so much sense. 00:17:29.430 --> 00:17:32.509 The remand prisoners pay a hefty recurring fee 00:17:32.509 --> 00:17:35.109 to the convicts, the men like Kumar, who are 00:17:35.109 --> 00:17:38.089 already serving long sentences. These lifers 00:17:38.089 --> 00:17:40.670 have established routines. They have deeply hidden 00:17:40.670 --> 00:17:42.430 stash spots. And they're probably not moving 00:17:42.430 --> 00:17:44.849 around as much. Right. And in many cases, they 00:17:44.849 --> 00:17:46.970 have compromised the guards on their specific 00:17:46.970 --> 00:17:49.930 cell blocks. So the remand prisoners pay the 00:17:49.930 --> 00:17:52.690 lifers to act as highly secure, walking safe 00:17:52.690 --> 00:17:55.269 deposit boxes for their electronics. Wow. It 00:17:55.269 --> 00:17:58.019 is a highly lucrative sophisticated fee -based 00:17:58.019 --> 00:18:00.619 service industry operating entirely in the shadows 00:18:00.619 --> 00:18:03.799 of the state. That is just brilliant in the darkest 00:18:03.799 --> 00:18:07.059 way possible. It's unregulated venture capitalism 00:18:07.059 --> 00:18:09.940 behind bars. It really is. And Kumar, having 00:18:09.940 --> 00:18:12.619 spent his entire life dominating informal economies, 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:15.980 saw this massive pile of cash changing hands 00:18:15.980 --> 00:18:18.660 and decided he needed to be the one controlling 00:18:18.660 --> 00:18:20.640 it. He couldn't just be a participant in the 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:23.460 market. Exactly. He had to be the monopoly. He 00:18:23.460 --> 00:18:27.000 applied the exact same ruthless enforcing tactics 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:29.599 that worked for him as a political henchman right 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:32.019 to the cell blocks of Pusall Prison. But that 00:18:32.019 --> 00:18:35.000 was his fatal miscalculation. He completely failed 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:37.819 to read the new environment. How so? Well, on 00:18:37.819 --> 00:18:39.779 the outside, when he was attacking people in 00:18:39.779 --> 00:18:42.619 court complexes, he had the invisible backing 00:18:42.619 --> 00:18:45.400 of political patrons to insulate him from the 00:18:45.400 --> 00:18:47.579 ultimate consequences of his violence. The state 00:18:47.579 --> 00:18:49.839 protected him. Right, until it couldn't. But 00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:52.579 inside Pusall Prison, there are no politicians 00:18:52.579 --> 00:18:54.559 to protect you. You're entirely on your own. 00:18:55.019 --> 00:18:58.680 Precisely. Inside, he was dealing with a closed, 00:18:59.299 --> 00:19:01.880 hyper -pressurized ecosystem of other hardened 00:19:01.880 --> 00:19:05.359 criminals. When you disrupt a black market economy 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:08.400 that tightly, and you forcefully cut off the 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:10.519 income streams of other violent men who also 00:19:10.519 --> 00:19:12.660 have life sentences and nothing to lose... Oh 00:19:12.660 --> 00:19:15.599 yeah, that's not gonna end well. The market will 00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:18.549 inevitably correct itself. In this closed system, 00:19:18.690 --> 00:19:21.130 a market correction doesn't mean a lawsuit or 00:19:21.130 --> 00:19:23.430 a bankruptcy. It means a targeted assassination. 00:19:23.529 --> 00:19:26.190 Exactly. The black market corrects itself. That 00:19:26.190 --> 00:19:29.430 is a chilling, perfect way to frame it. So what 00:19:29.430 --> 00:19:32.009 does this all mean? When we ask you, the listener, 00:19:32.190 --> 00:19:34.390 to reflect on this deep dive, it's really about 00:19:34.390 --> 00:19:36.450 zooming out and looking at the entire arc of 00:19:36.450 --> 00:19:38.609 this one Wikipedia article. From beginning to 00:19:38.609 --> 00:19:40.730 end, we started with Jay Kumar, the everyday 00:19:40.730 --> 00:19:42.990 welder from Taniyaket, a guy with a wife and 00:19:42.990 --> 00:19:45.529 kids working a physically demanding, honest trade. 00:19:45.740 --> 00:19:48.099 And we watched him realize that the physical 00:19:48.099 --> 00:19:50.339 skills of his trade could be monetized in the 00:19:50.339 --> 00:19:53.440 underworld. Leveraging that grit into a 25 case 00:19:53.440 --> 00:19:56.599 rap sheet and becoming welding Kumar, the trusted 00:19:56.599 --> 00:19:59.359 insulated muscle for powerful regional politicians. 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:02.980 And then we saw him completely shatter his own 00:20:02.980 --> 00:20:05.920 ceiling by committing an act of performative 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:08.680 violence against a lawyer involved in a state 00:20:08.680 --> 00:20:11.319 level corruption case. An act so brazen it brought 00:20:11.319 --> 00:20:13.500 down the wrath of the federal government and 00:20:13.500 --> 00:20:16.190 earned him a life sentence. And finally we saw 00:20:16.190 --> 00:20:19.710 him die. Yeah, but he didn't die in a grand political 00:20:19.710 --> 00:20:22.730 shootout or some wild escape attempt. He was 00:20:22.730 --> 00:20:25.289 stabbed to death in a prison yard over the right 00:20:25.289 --> 00:20:27.730 to hold contraband cell phones for wealthy inmates. 00:20:27.990 --> 00:20:30.210 He spent his entire life trying to forcefully 00:20:30.210 --> 00:20:32.230 bind his will to whatever environment he was 00:20:32.230 --> 00:20:35.049 in. Much like his original trade. Exactly. Until 00:20:35.049 --> 00:20:37.410 the pressure finally caused the whole structure 00:20:37.410 --> 00:20:40.609 to violently collapse in on him, it forces you 00:20:40.609 --> 00:20:42.630 to rethink the fundamental nature of these systems. 00:20:42.730 --> 00:20:45.460 I agree completely. We often view crime as a 00:20:45.460 --> 00:20:48.019 failure of society, right? An anomaly that just 00:20:48.019 --> 00:20:50.619 needs to be locked away. But if you look at the 00:20:50.619 --> 00:20:53.220 life of welding kumor, you see something entirely 00:20:53.220 --> 00:20:56.039 different. Well, when the state locks a man away 00:20:56.039 --> 00:20:58.880 in a maximum security facility to protect society, 00:20:59.339 --> 00:21:01.980 yet he is able to seamlessly continue running 00:21:01.980 --> 00:21:05.200 lucrative, fee -based rackets with the exact 00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:07.480 same ruthless efficiency he used on the outside, 00:21:07.940 --> 00:21:10.619 it leaves us with a genuinely provocative question 00:21:10.619 --> 00:21:14.259 to mull over. It forces us to ask. If an informal 00:21:14.259 --> 00:21:16.059 economy, whether it's on the streets of Chennai 00:21:16.059 --> 00:21:19.619 or deep inside Puzhal prison, will always violently 00:21:19.619 --> 00:21:21.859 correct itself to protect its profits and power 00:21:21.859 --> 00:21:24.289 structures, our crime and corruption actually 00:21:24.289 --> 00:21:26.970 anomalies in our society? Or are they just unregulated 00:21:26.970 --> 00:21:29.529 capitalism working exactly as intended? Man, 00:21:30.250 --> 00:21:31.869 that is a heavy, fascinating thought to walk 00:21:31.869 --> 00:21:33.549 away with. Thank you so much for joining us on 00:21:33.549 --> 00:21:35.329 this deep dive. We will catch you on the next 00:21:35.329 --> 00:21:35.529 one.