The Neeraj Pandey directed Special 26 isn’t just based on a real-life fake CBI gang that conducted ‘raids’ on corrupt politicians and businessmen and scooted off with their black money in the 80s, it also has mention of an infamous real raid, that on the house of politician Sukh Ram. The former telecom minister was convicted for amassing illegal wealth during the peak of India’s telecom revolution.
In 1996, a CBI raid at his house unearthed currency notes guesstimated to be between `1.5-3 crore, hidden inside the pooja ghar. Sukh Ram’s daughter, who was at home, could offer no coherent explanation for the stash.
The Akshay Kumar-starrer shows the incident, but of course, since we are used to a much bigger booty in scams now, the amount of cash they discover is shown to be `300 crore.