I called my friend one day for a casual meeting, he said that he is busy. After one week he turned up, he started sharing how bad the week was.
His brother was having an open plot and he was supporting him in the construction of a house. Some construction material was bought and it was laid on the road. One car was passing by that road, it got stuck in the sand material dumped a day before. The car did not move. The car was driven by a local doctor, he got down and asked them to remove all the material lying on the road. To which my friend and his two brothers said that work is going on and soon it will be used. An altercation started between the car owner and three brothers. Soon the emotions flared up and there was a physical fight between both the parties, meanwhile, the doctor’s relatives also joined.
All of them went to the police station and the First Information Reports were submitted by both the parties against each other. The doctor was well known to the police as he has donated furniture to the police station earlier. The case of the doctor was stronger as he filed on the basis of The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
In India, the caste system is there since ages. Historically, mostly the SCs were exploited by the other caste people. To prevent such atrocities, if a person from SC community complains, that if a person from Other Caste or Backward Caste person has abused him/her in the name of Caste, the case amounts to arrest immediately and taken very seriously. In this case my friend and his brothers never knew the caste of the Doctor, still, for having a stronger case, the other party misused the act.
After two days both the parties reconciled and agreed to withdraw the case mutually. Sometimes, in life, the petty arguments became serious for not much reason. Therefore both of them approached the police for the withdrawal of the case. Now the police have some ‘interest’ to exploit my friend and his brothers. One police officer in the station started demanding money to close the case. He was calling them at different times to the police station and wasting the time of both the parties. My friend visited the higher officials and lawyers on how he could get out of this situation? Majority of them said that you have to give some money as a bribe to the police personnel to get the case closed.
The intervening pacifiers and protectors-the police personnel - have become exploiters of the situation. They mostly assess the integrity and assets of a person, by asking a few questions, and then they start exploiting even more.
For a lawyer, the person on the wrong side is the most important potential client. For a doctor, a rich old patient with multiple ailments is an important client. People in the corrupt system want a weakness or something to exploit and survive. In a pack of wild beasts, the loin tries to attack the weak beast. These human beings are not humane with a big heart, they are still primitive.
