Frustrated at the repeated demand for bribe by corrupt officials, an old man in a remote Assam village has pleaded to the Gauhati High Court to legalise bribe, especially when it entails policemen.
An 84-year-old man, Muktadir Ali Talukdar has written a letter to the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court AK Goel to legalise bribe, particularly when policemen are involved after having bitter experiences with the police. Talukdar had applied for his passport twice so that he can go to Haj pilgrimage. But on both occasions, his application for the passport failed to go beyond the local police station as he refused to pay the cops.
“last year, I had applied for passport to the regional passport office (RPO) in Guwahati as I had to go on Haj pilgrimage. I produced all documents as sought by the police during verification. But despite that, they demanded bribe. I refused it and as a result, my file didn’t move,” Talukdar said. In due course, the RPO closed his file forcing him to apply for it again. “When the police demanded bribe this time again, I thought of writing to the Chief Justice appealing him to legalise the bribe. Once it is legalised, me and people like me will have not problem paying the cops,” said Talukdar.
In the letter, the octogenarian narrated the hardships faced by him and also other Hajis during police verification for passport. “Since files do not move without giving bribes to police, it (bribe taken by the police) should be legalised,” he wrote in the letter. Demands for bribe and subsequent harassment by the police during verification leave many Hajjis missing out on the pilgrimage every year, he alleged. Days after Talukdar sent his letter to Justice Goel, local police visited his residence to say that, “we’re extremely sorry if it has happened with him. We’ll make sure such things don’t occur in the future.”