There's some hope in the system!

This is the first contemporary post on my blog, detached from abstraction and attached to reality as inseparably as it can get. It was not long ago when newspapers, TV channels, Online News Sites, Radios and all other forms of mass media are thrashing the Delhi Police for the lackadaisical manner in which the entire Jessica Lall Murder case was handled and how the sheer power of money has made all the eye-witnesses take a U-turn resulting in the "historical" acquittal of all the 9 accused.

Police, as usual, faces the wrath. This case further tarnishes the already blackened face of the Indian police. The poor men in khakhi do not seem to have much progress since independence. But here I would like to present a true incident which happened with me about 4 months back and forces me to think ," Well! It's not so dark afterall, there is plenty of light at the end of the tunnel".

The story goes like this. Me and 3 other friends of mine escaped to a trip to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan around the new year. Having seen Jodhpur , we boarded a bus to Jaisalmer. The prime attraction of the place was the sand dunes which formed the start of the Thar Desert. Specifically, We had Sam Sand dunes as the favoured destination, the prime attraction of Jaisalmer.

Just about when the five hour journey from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer had ended, some men boarded the bus and began advertising their hotel. We , just like any other gullible tourist, were taken in by their "offering" and jumped on the jeep which carried us to their "hotel". It actually was a residential flat converted to a hotel. The owner, PS offered us rooms to stay and also offered sight seeing, desert safari and night stay packages at the "Sand" dunes. We negotiated a package deal for our 2.5 days stay at Jaisalmer.Everything went fine till the time we enjoyed the Jaisalmer fort and the magnificent havelis inside the town. Here are a couple of testimonies:



The next day we set out to the Sand Dunes.It was nearabout an hour's journey with the car crossing military tanks on its way. We reached the "resort" of PS in the desert and embarked on the desert Safari which was a a half hour ride into the desert. We clicked some great pictures there at the fall of the sun.





On our return, an armymen told us that the tour operator (PS) had literally "taken us for a ride" as the place that we were so blissfully taking to be the Sam Sand Dunes was just a poor cousin called Khuri and the actual place was about 90 kms away from where we stood.

Our shoulders dropped as we returned to the camp. The place was not exactly buzzing with foreign tourists. The place looked deserted and despite the best efforts from the attendants at hospitality, we lost the zest as we felt cheated. We soon formed the opinion that PS was a thug and took us for a ride. We decided to drop the idea of night camp in the desert, go to our hotel, pick our luggage and quietly walk out. Exasperated and infuriated, we returned to the town. Two of us waited at the bus stand and the other two went to the hotel. MB and AM managed to pick up the luggage and we sat down in the hotel at the bus stand to have our dinner.

But as it turned out, Jaisalmer was a very small place. PS and his men ( goons actually) found us in no time and the don of Jaisalmer , as we later discovered , wasted no time in coming down to the basics of street quarreling. The 4 of us defended our point that he cheated us by sending us to Khuri in the name of Sam and refused to pay any more money to him. He instead threatened, cursed and bullied us to pay him the entire 2100/- balance amount. In an hour full of heated arguements,4 educated young men were soon surrounded by local louts hurling fists and abuses. We were threatened with dire consequences on crossroads at 9 PM in the night but in no case were we ready to pay him the money. It was a matter of principle for us!!

A timidly police constable tried to intervene but the muscle power prevailed over him. PS and his men suggested (and we beleived him) that we go to the police station and settle the score there. As we moved with him in the direction of the police station, he assaulted us and hit MB across the face. His glasses were deformed and the situation went out of control. We were too few and too civilised to take on the local toughie and hence we decided to pay him the money and buy our own safety.

PS rejoiced when he got the cash and he also gave us a receipt in sheer conceit which later brought his downfall. Humiliated and bruised, we approach the police station and wrote down an FIR. While the police listened to our story, PS himself walked into the station scot-free and narrated his own version of the story turning the tables on us and threatened us right there in the police station!!!!! The police looked impartial but we soon realised that by asking us to stay back in town and get a medical examination done, they were pushing us towards a tame submission to a lengthy, winding and tiresome process. They did not have the guts to lock PS behind the bars! We were fired up and did not want to give in so easily, but we also did not have the option of staying back in Jaisalmer as we knew no-one there and it was risky with PS turning hostile.

So far so good, what's the big deal??? Isn't police acting the way they should!!! :)

We settled for a peanut 500/- that PS paid us for the humiliation and walked out of the Station with an unsubmitted FIR in our hand and set out for JOdhpur the same night. Reaching a more trustoworthy hotel, we decided to give the matter a last shot in Jodhpur. Thankfully, the hotel owner in Jodhpur was unlike his Jaisalmer counterpart, a civilised gentlmean. He advised us to directly approach the Inspector General of Police at Jodhpur. We were hesitant as our earlier experience had left us totally skeptical about approaching police.

But we went ahead anyway. We reached IG's office and were sitting in front of him in 15 minutes. He listened to our grievance and was particularly struck by the fact that IIT graduates were treated in such harsh manner. He gave an immediate call to his subordinates in Jaisalmer. We were impressed by his strict demeanor. He assured us that he will get us back our full refund for 5100/- that we claimed. But so much for an assurance. What's the big deal? Was he really going to act on it? Since when did the Indian police turn so resposive to the general public??

We walked out of the compound and set out to our last resort , the Mandore garden. We clicked monkeys and monuments:



We had a train to catch at 7.30 in the evening. At around 6 PM, we came out of the gardens and MB's phone rang. Guess who, IG personally gave us a call and asked us to collect our entire refund from his PA at his office. He not only did that, he also made sure that PS was given a good thrashing at the hands of Jaisalmer Police. Pleasant surprise indeed!! Agreed it was not a grave crime, just a case of street-fighting, but when did you last see the police acting so quick!!

In places like Jaisalmer, tourist is the king! So the police takes utmost care that cases of tourist harassment are delt with very strictly. To prevent recurrence of such incidents, IG ordered police to be posted on Jaisalmer bus stand and railway station so that gullible tourists were not trapped by local "Lapkas"!

Very recently, we heard a case in which the son of a top Orissa COP was sentenced for imprisonment for raping a german citizen in Alwar! This case has stood out as a landmark example for the pace at which the judiciary has acted. Salman Khan too was not spared in his dastardly act of chinkara hunt! Seems like the rest of India has lessons to pick up from Rajasthan!!