I have only faint memory of a purported true story which I remember to have read in Reader's Digest, about 30 or so years ago.
A young lawyer in Britain, when he joined practice of advocacy, saw many instances were there was nexus between corrupt prosecutors and judges. Money used to exchange for bails and such discretionary orders.
He decided to expose the system. His blood was young and hot. He felt it not necessary to consider future consequences of his action.
He went to Chief of Police. He expressed desire to run a sting operations. If he ran such sting operations without permission of law, he could be charged with attempted blackmail or attempted extortion or attempted bribe cases and he could find himself embroiled into trouble while trying to run such sting operation.
The Chief of Police gave him permission to run sting operation on one condition. Everyday evening, he was required to deposit original tape recorded cassettes in police station. (Probably at that time CD and Spy Camera were not invented)
The lawyer agreed. For one month he kept recording conversations of all public prosecutors and judges who were corrupt.
After one month, his sting operations were over. His complaint registered. Scandal broke out. He became a media-hero. Shot to publicity overnight. The Government took prompt actions. The corrupt judges and corrupt prosecutors were suspended and prosecutions initiated against them. Lawyers regulatory body also took action. License to practice law of these corrupt lawyers and judges were suspended.
So far so good. After six months, everyone has forgotten about his great courage and social service. He found that no cases were coming to him. His colleagues and friend lawyers were afraid to talk with him. He felt he was being avoided by his peers. All other judges and lawyers looked upon him with some kind of suspicion and fear in their eyes.
The situation become unbearable for Junior lawyer. In absence of cases, it became very difficult for him to survive in profession of law.
Finally, he left city. He left District. He went to another city were he was not known. There he started his practice of law from scratch.
After some years, I read his story in Reader's Digest, as per my remote memory. (about 30 years ago)
Moral of this story:
Frankly, I do not know. I cannot say that this Junior advocate did right thing in a right way. I also cannot say that he did any wrong things. There are certain schemes of God under which all of us are driven to do certain things regardless of thinking whether they are against our survival of us or not. I can only say that whatever God does, he must be doing for good of all of us. He could be sacrificing one of us for the benefit of masses. His ways are difficult to fathom.
Haresh Raichura
(Lawyer, Supreme Court of India), on twitter @hareshraichura, profile on LinkedIn as Haresh Raichura
Posted first on : 8/12/13
Blog post 938
