2nd Interesting Experience- Catching a Corrupt Cop

When I joined the government a long time back I never imagined I’d have anything to do with cops. To my surprise I got to work alongside cops for almost six years in an investigating agency, and only last year I got out of it. It was an interesting experience but the most interesting experience was one that I had last Thursday with another set of cops. I actually participated in an trap operation that led to the arrest of a senior policeman caught red-handed accepting a bribe.

A day after I was involved in searching the house of a corrupt municipal official in the company of the cops of the Anti-Corruption Bureau last week, I was at their office signing away documents since morning. I must have signed something like a thousand papers when one of the cops told me that his boss was calling me. I thought the boss must be thanking me for the success of the operation and went along to his room jauntily. But when I was shown in, I had a big surprise in store.

I was just told to carefully watch someone demonstrate a procedure that showed how corrupt people are trapped and caught red-handed while accepting bribes. The money that is given to the corrupt person is first coated with an invisible chemical (Phenolpthalein) which sticks to the hands when the cash is handled. When the hands of the person are dipped in a Sodium Carbonate solution it turns pink.

I was shown a stack of currency worth fifty thousand which was kept in a bag. We were then told someone had approached the ACB cops that a person was asking for a bribe. A formal complaint was filed and then the next act began. There were more than twenty people involved in the operation, most of them cops. We started for the place where the trap was laid. I was with an Inspector and half a dozen constables in a Tata Sumo. More cops followed on bikes and other vehicles. We reached a court building where the person would accept the bribe in the office room of a prosecutor. Much later I was told it was a cop who was being trapped. The person carrying the money to give the cop went in. We waited tensely for him to come out and give the pre-arranged signal of wiping his face with his handkerchief. It was a very long wait.

The inspector was in touch with his boss over phone. Then finally after a three hour wait we learnt the cop had shifted the venue to another place. Every one scrambled to follow an autorickshaw in which the complainant (the guy giving the bribe) and another person (the prosecutor) who negotiated the bribe were going to meet the cop who asked for the bribe. It was a scene straight out of a movie. We were just behind the autorickshaw that was being followed closely by two more cops. The traffic was heavy and so it was difficult following it. Yet we did keep it in sight. Every one was tense and I was the tensest. I had not been in such an operation before. I was both excited and also a bit scared. What if the cop took out his gun and shot me (I am a witness, remember?) to bits?? But all such fears vanished when we reached Chaderghat where the cop was waiting in his official vehicle.

All of a sudden there was a commotion as the ACB cops rushed to the waiting Sumo vehicle. The person who was to give the bribe was told to give a signal that the bribe was accepted. Three senior cops held the corrupt cop on either side immobilizing him. The crowds watched as the cops swiftly moved away in their vehicles, half a dozen vehicles following behind. The operation was successful but some more procedures remained. The inspector with me was tense because another person with the corrupt cop had got away. The corrupt cop turned out to be an Assistant Commissioner of Police who had asked for fifty thousand rupees. He was trapped successfully and was arrested right on the spot. He was in uniform and he had a revolver (gulp!) with him which was taken away.

It was both a terrifying sight and an interesting sight to look at his face. The tall, balding and elderly cop was shocked and his eyes darted around as he looked at us while he was being led up the stairs his hands held on both sides by the cops of the ACB. I can never forget the sight of his face as he gave me a baleful look. Later he was made to sit beside me while I wrote the mediator’s report narrating the entire operation that would be later produced in court. It was the third case I was a witness in and it meant that I would be making the rounds of the courts for years to come. That would be another entirely different experience.

The entire operation wasn’t without its moments of fun. The cops of the ACB were of all senior rank- DSP and Inspectors. They were very deferential towards me calling me ‘Sir’ all the time and getting me whatever I wanted. They buttered me up saying my handwriting was good and they said they were lucky they had me as a witness because the statement was without any mistakes! I had a bet with the inspector who was with me that he would treat me to biryani if the operation was successful. So he owes me one. But it took a long time to write the reports. Meanwhile the media hawks landed but they were in a separate room. It was half past two in the morning when we completed writing the reports.

The trapped cop was later taken to a lock-up in a police station which must have been a terrible irony. A cop who is supposed to put others behind bars was himself behind bars in the company of criminals. The next day he was sent to jail by the magistrate and I wondered if there’d be any criminals there who he might have arrested. I wondered how humiliated he and his family must be feeling. I also felt a bit sad being part of his humiliation. The cops even introduced me to the corrupt cop while I was taking down his statement. It was the first time we met but I guess we’ll be seeing each other in the courts when his trial begins. Meanwhile, I was glad I had the experience of a life time being involved in three cases within two days. Every one was saying it is a headache that lasts for years until the cases are decided. I don’t know if it would be a headache or not but I am feeling light headed having witnessed live that crime never pays.