Synopsis:Our world is full of evil people who do harm to others in order to gain riches and power. Such people start modestly in their early life but gain notoriety progressively as they become more evil and become more powerful. They are a scourge that infects the humanity that destroys many lives and puts pressure on the governments to deal with them effectively.
There was a prosecutor in Sicily who took upon himself the massive task of bringing the Mafia people to justice and gathered evidences against them that would hold up in any court of law. He succeeded in putting in jail more than 300 criminals who had committed serious crimes of murder, rape, extortion, kidnaping people for ransom, illegal occupation of private and government properties, reign of terror in rural and urban areas, bribing politicians and justice people to overlook their crimes and numerous other evil acts. The brave prosecutor was threatened by the mafia who were hell bent to kill him so the Italian government gave the brave man 24 hour protection. His family was also threatened so they too required round the clock protection.
The criminals jeered and cursed him from behind the bars of their jail and said that he will soon die and they will all go scot free to resume their criminal life. The press avidly followed the progress of the case because no one had ever even tried to prosecute so many mafia men at one time and succeeded so people hoped that this time the courageous prosecutor will succeed where others had failed. He had the full support of the police and the judiciary to bring to justice all these criminals so that the country could eliminate the scourge of mafia once and for all.
But one day the mafia men put a bullet into his head while killing his body guards so the case stopped in its track and all the criminals were released, the evidences against them disappeared and the reign of terror resumed with full vigor.
When the mafia tags a victim, there is no way he or she can escape. The most audacious method is to send a killer on a motorbike that stops beside the car of the victim when there is a red light, shoots the person and rapidly escapes. The dead man slumps on his steering wheel that triggers the horn alerting the traffic police but the killer is long gone.
In many countries the mafia people operate with complete impunity because they protect themselves by bribing the police and the judiciary just like what you have seen in the movie The godfather that highlights how the mafia got started in the rural villages of Sicily and how it spread to the United States and other countries.
Not all mafia people are Italians. There are numerous mafia gangs in many countries involved in drug trafficking, people trafficking, slavery, prostitution, diamond and gold smuggling, land grabbing, extortion etc. Most of these criminals are home grown while others may have international connections. Their main objective is to make money as fast as possible using any means including murder. They invest their black money in businesses that act as a front, acquire illegal properties through threats and intimidation and numerous other ways like setting up shell companies to hide the source of their illegal money.
Now for the first time a chief minister of the most populous state in India has taken up the task of eliminating the mafia in Uttar Pradesh. The mafia had never even dreamed of such a nemesis and are learning that here is a very determined man who wants to end their rule forever.
The chief minister has warned all criminals to surrender to the police or leave the state so to persuade them, he sends the bulldozers to demolish their illegal buildings .So far hundreds of mafia buildings have been demolished and many prominent criminals are in jail awaiting trials. Others are shaking in their boots because they know that the bull dozers are coming for them so it is just a matter of time. The government of India freezes their bank accounts, destroys their illegal properties, returns the freed land to its legal owners, prosecutes the criminals and their musclemen and makes life very hard for them to survive.
For the first time the mafia men are now living in fear and some of them have surrendered to the police voluntarily to spare their lives but to eliminate them completely is a gargantuan task that requires constant vigilance and prompt action. Now many other states that are encouraged by the progress made in Uttar Pradesh are initiating the same process in their areas because mafia exists everywhere. There is coal mafia that steals coal from the mines, sand mafia that steals sand ,wildlife poaching mafia, human trafficking mafia , the drug mafia ,prostitution mafia and many more. Some of these mafia people have foreign connections with the terrorists in neighboring countries who want to destabilize the country.
The politicians of some states protect these criminals because they receive hefty donations from them to their personal accounts and to their party coffers so the criminals flourish everywhere. The politicians also use their own gangs to extort “Protection money “from businessmen and shop owners just like the mafia. Their goons intimidate the voters to get their boss reelected but that too is coming to an end because the common people are tired of rigged elections, fake voters, fear of violence against them, intimidation and are now demanding the election of an honest candidate.
But this is easier said than done. Who is an honest politician and what is the guarantee that he or she once elected will not do the same meaning patronizing the criminals to get rich? It is easy to get corrupted when there is a temptation and easy to get rich method offered by the mafia. Those who dare to stop them end up with a bullet to their head because a very determined killer will always find a gap in the security of any politicians.
Remember the assassins of John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert? No one has until now found the real culprits. There was a case recently in a village near Kanpur, India where a big time criminal lived in a massive villa with high walls and security cameras. One night the policemen surrounded his villa late at night to arrest this man but found the main access road blocked by a bulldozer and all the lights turned off so they proceeded by foot in the dark. They were in for a tragic surprise when they were met by a hail of bullets from all sides so more than 8 policemen were killed and many more injured while the criminals all escaped through the back door.
The main culprit who had ordered the murder of the policemen escaped to the neighboring state but was caught later and was being brought to Kanpur but the vehicle overturned somewhere and the criminal tried to escape. He was then shot dead.
It was later found that he was informed by a policeman in his pay that a raid to arrest him was underway so he set up his gunmen on the roof to ambush the raiding party. This is how the mafia people work. They pay the police to inform them when a raid is coming to arrest them.
Once I was stopped by a friend to put money in the juke box of a place to listen to some music. She told me that the mafia places these juke boxes through intimidation and collects the money every night. They also operate Laundromat and car wash facilities etc. as front to show that they are legitimate businessmen but continue their crimes.
In Mexico, Colombia and other countries of the region, thousands of innocent people have been killed by the drug cartel because they opposed them and their goons. One cartel leader has been arrested and is serving jail time in the US but hundreds of them still operate freely putting immense pressure on the law and order situation in many countries.
There are evil people everywhere. One transport officer in India collected thousands of Rupees from truck drivers illegally every day until one day a magistrate passing by saw a long row of trucks at a crossing. He became curious for this traffic jam and soon learned that a policeman without tag was extorting money from the drivers. When questioned, he confessed that he was doing so by the order of the transport officer and has been doing so for many years. He also spilled the name and the address of the fellow.
When the residence of the transport officer was raided, the police found millions of Rupees filled sacs everywhere. They also found lots of documents of ownership of numerous buildings, apartments, malls, hotels, farm lands and a large number of luxury cars and buses in his compound. He was promptly arrested and all his properties confiscated by the government. He is waiting for the court proceedings to complete before sentencing but he is just one of many such corrupt people.
There is a saying in India that when the police went to a village to get the scammer, the whole village was emptied meaning that the evil people are everywhere. While some are being caught and punished, others go about their evil ways freely.
The crime investigative branch of the Indian Police routinely raids the premises of businessmen , movie stars and others who are suspected of hoarding illegal cash, jewelries and precious things to avoid paying tax and find millions of Rupees , gold and silver hidden in often ingenious ways. They meaning the raiding teams take great pleasure in trashing the house of such people who can only watch but do nothing. Many have been sent to jails. Indian jails are nothing to brag about where the new inmates are thrown in the company of rapists, murderers, homosexuals and the likes.
So far I have written about the big time criminals who run the mafia everywhere but there are others who are petty thieves and fraudsters who specialize in scams of all kind. Their victims are innocent people like you and me who are vulnerable. The dishonest vendors give you less by weight for what you buy from them, they sell you adulterated food and over charge you. Some will not give back proper change.
Once a man gave me less money than what I expected when I changed dollars into Rupees at an airport bank. I counted and recounted my money and found it less than the correct amount so finally he was forced to pay me the correct amount. This is evil. Another con man tried to do the same in Manila but I refused and walked away but many innocent people are so victimized.
The problem is how to avoid the evil people? They come in many shapes and sizes and pretend to be honest when they are not. Who will protect us from such people? Do we always have to be on guard? Why people become evil so easily? They adulterate milk, they sell inferior quality meat and vegetables and they cheat you when you buy anything from them, they pressure you to buy fake products and they laugh behind you back because they make a fool out of you. They are also evil even if not in the same league as the mafia men.
Then there are people who try to borrow money from you but have no intention of paying it back so they too are evil. How many of us have been so victimized? I am sure you all have such sad stories to tell. What I find absolutely horrible is that some of the evil men and women are known to you and some of them may even be your relatives whom you cannot avoid.
In conclusion I can only say that as long as the humanity exists, there will always be evil people no matter how hard the police try to curb them and put them behind bars. If one is put away, a thousand take their place so the utopia we dream of will always remain a dream and not become a reality.
We have to teach our children honesty, selfless service, good values and morals and most of all humility so that they grow up as good persons. Only the good people can fight the evil in this world like that chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. I wish there were more such people of courage who put their own lives at risk to serve the people and bring justice to those who were harmed.
Source : Google photo of Einstein and his quotes
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