Corruption ?? Is it too difficult to eradicate ...

“As if the spirit of these so-called intellectuals

Is dead...

What remains is-

Just the ashes...

These soulless individuals...

These machine-like men...

Working in the name of modernity

I watch them-

Murdering humanity for their selfish motives...

Absolutely alone!”

from my diary, June 1986

Corruption is a malaise that has seeped deep down through the pores of our society to enter its blood stream. I had to confront this demon since the early days of my career. As the Assistant Superintendent of Police in Allahabad I came across two cases of corruption. I had just started my career and therefore was filled with enthusiasm to transform everything. I feel proud to this day that our response was so effective and exemplary that they are remembered even today.

One fine day, at least twenty-five lorry and truck drivers came with a complaint to the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police. The drivers complained that their trucks had been stranded on the Delhi-Kolkata highway since last five days. The staff of the Assistant Road Transport Officer (ARTO) had detained them. The staff had demanded a sum of Rupees Five Thousand from each of them, an amount they just did not have the capacity to pay.

They further narrated their woes, “Sahib, we pleaded before the ARTO to challan us. We told them that we are merely servants and our owners would deposit any fines if they were due, but please let us go and complete our jobs or our children would die of hunger. Now he has kept all our papers and is not even prepared to fine us. In such a situation we cannot even move without papers or challan receipts. We have been stranded since last five days and are starving since we have completely run out of money. We do not even have enough to feed ourselves.”

Who has not seen those long queues on the highways? We are all aware of what goes on in the name of checking undertaken by various agencies on our roads. The senior officer heard out their tale of woe and referred them to me. He instructed me that I should verify their complaint and if found true, I should try to trap the corrupt officials.

I asked the drivers to sit down and talked to them at length, trying to understand what was happening. I asked the station in charge and the local intelligence unit to dress up like the drivers and to accompany the drivers to talk to the officials. The drivers’ complaints were found to be correct. This was a clear case of corruption crossing all limits.

This was 1992-93, and during those days Rupees Five Thousand was huge sum of money, much beyond the capacity of any truck driver to pay as hush money. Had a more ‘reasonable’ demand been made, the drivers would have paid up and went on their way. Had the challan receipts been issued, for whatever offence, the demand would have been justified. Here, the demand made by the officials was so exorbitant and without any justification to support it, that they had been forced to group together and approach the police, an option we as citizens exercise only when pushed absolutely to the wall. In fact corruption has been recognised as part of life in India, and it is more often the citizen’s readiness to pay up that emboldens the official to demand bribes.

In this case, the drivers who were merely employed by the truck owners did not have the capacity to pay such a huge sum as a bribe. Some of them, whose owners lived not far away had actually come and purchased their right of way by paying up. The ones that were left stranded were the drivers from Delhi, Haryana and Punjab whose owners could not travel with the cash to free their trucks. Among these drivers was a retired policeman who had suggested to those stranded that they approach the police. A long queue of trucks could be seen along the highway as I drove past.

After the plainclothesmen reported that the complaints were indeed correct, I was convinced that this was a clear case of corruption and the guilty had to be trapped. We kept a few currency notes, with signatures on them, among the stack of crisp currency. These were handed over to the retired policeman who was now a truck driver. Plainclothesmen were deputed with him and sent to the ARTO outpost. The officials took this group straight to the officer himself. The officer was quite open about accepting the bribe. He did not display any shame, hesitation or secrecy in accepting the packet. He had a word of advice for the old driver, “You have been harassed for the last five days. You should have done this earlier and we would have let you go on your way. Give a piece of your mind to those idiots squatting on the highway. For how long will they keep camping on that highway?”

The moment the packet was received by him, the police officers accompanying the driver arrested the officer red-handed for corruption. The case, of course, was widely reported in the media. The drama did not end with the arrest. The drama unfolded to its climax when the officer’s bail plea came up for hearing at the District Judge’s court. Lawyers from the entire court premises came for the hearing. They shouted slogans and represented before the Judge that an official who is so widely known to be corrupt should not even be given an opportunity to present an application for bail. Such was the notoriety of the official that many lawyers stated openly that they had to pay bribes to him to obtain driving licences. Noticeably, not even one lawyer came forward to represent the official for the hearing of his bail plea.

This particular incident should not let us get trapped in stereotypes. We should not think that all ARTOs or government officials are corrupt. For one corrupt official there are several others who understand their responsibility and come forward to help others even suffering personal losses in the process. But experience tells us that when one crosses all boundaries of propriety, the system has a way of correcting itself and this is how the officials who sit in their high chairs undergo humiliation. The newspapers had widely reported this incident as a victory of the people over corruption. A headline that took the cake was “Highway Robbers Nailed!” What could be more shameful for an official who is responsible for upholding the law?

* * *

Another incident that I must mention here relates to the complaint against an Inspector of the vigilance cell of the electricity department. Such inspectors are on deputation to Electricity department from Police in order to prevent electricity theft. They are supposed to be alert on ensuring that no one consumes electricity without making due payments for the same. I received numerous complaints that this particular inspector would visit people’s homes and threaten people with cases for electricity theft, demanding huge amounts as bribes.

His main targets were hotel owners, industrialists, doctors running nursing homes and such people who would rather pay up from well-off businesses rather than go through the rigmarole of a police case, inquiries and court visits. They accepted the unreasonable demands because just the reporting of the case by the inspector meant adverse publicity and hassles.

A well-known doctor-couple met the city superintendent with a complaint against this inspector. The City SP referred them to me. I was quite perturbed to hear how this electricity inspector was harassing a well-known
lady doctor of the city. She narrated that it was in the evening at around four that a squad from the electricity department had raided their clinic. They had checked all connections and the electric meters. After having gone through the drill, the inspector who was accompanied by about four others had declared that one of the meters had gone defunct since several years. A direct connection had been made, a clear violation of the law. Now the clinic owners would be held liable for this lapse. A criminal case of electricity theft would be registered against them and they would be sent to jail. Not only would they have to pay up a huge amount for unpaid electricity dues but also a large sum for past defaults.

During the conversation he had also hinted to the doctor, who was by now quite disturbed with the ruckus he was creating in front of several patients and visitors, that a compromise formula could also be worked out to save their skins.

The lady doctor told me, “I was adamant that I would not pay any fines or hush money since I had dutifully paid all my electricity bills. Since we had committed no crime, we had no reason to run scared. I made it quite clear that I would not pay a single penny,” the doctor carried on with a faraway look in her eyes, “then the vigilance squad cut off our electricity connection and sealed the meters. They even removed some of the electric wire from the clinic and took it away as evidence of our theft. They wrote a report in front of our eyes that our crime is so culpable that they would lodge a first information report at the police station and press for our arrest on a non-bail-able offence.” While leaving the clinic, the inspector had once again hinted that he could still manage to save them if they were prepared to pay up.

The lady doctor’s husband, who was also a doctor, went on to say, “they treated us like petty criminals. They used foul language in full hearing of several patients and visitors. Tell me, sir, do we look like criminals? If this is so, please send us to jail. However, if you feel that we are honest professionals trying to cure people, please help us and teach these people such a lesson that the thought of even harassing honest citizens does not cross their minds.”

I had understood the gravity of their words. I asked the local intelligence to give me a profile of this inspector. It was reported that the man was quite a terror and this doctor couple was just one of his several targets. I hatched a plan to trap the corrupt official, in collaboration with the doctor couple. I asked them to go and negotiate with the vigilance team. When the deal was done, they came and reported to me. The doctor couple prepared a packet of currency notes and reached the hotel, where the inspector was staying, at the appointed time to pay the bribe. We were already there in plain clothes. The inspector was an easy catch with a packet of currency lying comfortably in his hands that were now awaiting the handcuffs. A total of fifty-five thousand Rs were recovered from his possession.

The very same people who were supposed to prevent electricity theft had turned out to be thieves, not just aiding and abetting crime, but themselves organising it. Shocking surprise that such people are openly operating in society without a speck of fear or repentance, with educated, well-off classes preferring to purchase their peace of mind from them!