Biography: How Coomar Narain made a career of leaking confidential bureaucratic documents

When Chittoor Venkat Narain, a man whose life story and career as a middleman were yet to unfold, stepped onto the platform of Kashmiri Gate railway station in 1949, it marked the beginning of a new chapter in his life.

The distant whiff of coal stoves wafted into the railway compartment, followed by the aroma of freshly brewed milk tea that woke Coomar Narain up. Outside the Kashmiri Gate railway station, a mixture of scents such as burning coal stoves, freshly brewed tea and tobacco served as a wake-up call. India had gained independence, and the railway platforms became the first supermarkets where consumer goods, books and smuggled items from American soldiers returning home were found. Until then, he had only seen the name of the capital on envelopes that he handled at the post office in the Kamptee military cantonment. In his bleary vision of that winter of 1949, he saw the city that had become a part of his life in the past few years when he worked as a postal clerk in the military.

The first thing that caught Coomar Narain’s attention on the railway platform was the sound of the coal engine hissing. Interestingly, the steam engines were...

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