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Kal Ajana. Phir Dekhenge” (Come tomorrow. Then will see) is a famous dialogue of Rama Shetty the don, played by Sadashiv Amrupurkar in the film “Ardh Satya” (1983) when police inspector Anant Welankar played by Om Puri goes to arrest him from his gambling den.
40 years later the same dialogues are still repeated by our politicians whenever the ED/CBI issues summons to them for personal appearance.
The Ex.Chief Minister of Jharkhand Mr. Hemant Soren avoided ED summons at least 7 times before being eventually arrested on 1.2.2024 in a land scam case. Mrs. Kavita, a MLC from BRS party Telangana, avoided ED summons and approached courts for protection, before being arrested on 15.3.2024 in the infamous Delhi Excise Policy case involving “ South Group”.
The current Chief Minister of Delhi Mr. Arvind Kejriwal has ignored summons 8 times issued by the ED to appear before them in connection with the above Delhi Liquor Policy case and even secured a bail from the court. Now, ED has issued summons for the 9th time to him to appear before them in the Delhi Jal Board tendering process involving Money Laundering.
The open defiance by the politicians to the summons of ED highlights how the high and mighty can ignore the lawful summons issued by the investigating agencies like the Enforcement Directorate or CBI and roam scot free without the fear of being arrested.
For a common citizen the summons by any agency ( Court/ED/CBI/) is like a Diktat and sends shivers down the spine. Any attempts to avoid the summons will invite immediate arrest.
I am sharing my own nightmarish experience in one such case involving the CBI as a witness in a bank loan case.
I retired as a DGM from Syndicate Bank on 31st March 2018. I was staying at my son’s place which was around 35 kms. from my residence in Bangalore. One day my neighbour sent a message to me saying that a notice about non-delivery of a speed post letter was pasted on my door. It immediately sent alarm bells ringing in my mind. I was caught in an unknown fear. I was worried it could be summoned from the CBI for some account sanctioned by me going bad.
I couldn’t sleep the whole night thinking about the source of the cover and the contents in it. Despite assurances from my family members, I was deeply worried. My family members suggested that I give an authorization letter to my neighbour to collect the speed post and request him to resend the same to me in a separate cover. Initially, I agreed to this arrangement. But after spending a sleepless night, I decided against it. My family was baffled at my fears. But I explained the consequences, if the letter contains summons from CBI and I miss the date of appearance.
I called up the postman concerned and enquired about the sender. He confirmed it was from a Government Department. With this my worst fears were confirmed, and I took a cab next morning and went to collect the cover by spending nearly a thousand rupees for a round trip. Fortunately, for me it was an inconsequential letter, and I heaved a sigh of relief after seeing the contents. But the amount of tension and mental agony I had experienced as a common man is inexplicable.
This reminds me of the famous quote from the novel Animal Farm written by George Orwell in 1945. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” While commenting about the hypocrisy of governments that indicate the absolute equality of their citizens but give power and privileges to a small elite. Despite an age old quote, it is relevant even today.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint