Legalised knee-capping.

The Campa Cola Compound case in Mumbai is a vivid illustration of how our laws actively help criminals while penalising the innocent. In short the story is that a plot of land belonging to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation was leased to the Pune Drinks Company which used to make a soft drink called Campa Cola. This company sold development rights to 3 builders who proceeded to construct residential buildings between 1984 and 1989. In violation of local building laws they added 35 extra floors. While the work was in progress the BMC issued notices to the builders to stop work but they carried on regardless and sold all the illegal floors, promising that they would be made legal. This was really cute because the BMC merely issued notices, to cover themselves, but made no attempt to obtain an injunction against the builders to stop work nor did they use the police to force the builders. Virtually all builders are linked to organised crime so the officers may have been threatened or cash may have changed hands, we do not know. The BMC refused to certify the illegal floors or to allow water connection so the residents have been managing with water tankers. The residents went to court to force the BMC to give water connections at which point the BMC argued that the floors were illegal and should be demolished and the courts, including the Supreme Court, agreed. So now the residents have been forced out by the police and presumably, given the horrendous price of properties in Mumbai, have nowhere to live. It is interesting that the BMC used the police to turf out helpless residents but did not use the police against the builders. The courts did not send the builders or any of the officials to prison. The residents were right to believe that their flats would be made legal because entire colonies of illegal buildings are made legal before elections. They are said to be ' regularised ' and touted as helping the poor. So no laws for the ' poor '. Politicians regularly refuse to vacate expensive government bungalows after losing elections. Pointing to others is no defence as the courts say that 2 wrongs do not make a right. True, but that means that people are left to the mercy of officials who will prosecute only those who are unable or unwilling to pay bribes. This is exactly what criminals do. Break the knee caps of one man to set an example so that others are terrified into paying extortion money. So selective justice is legal knee-capping. The beauty is that it is done with taxpayer money and the one who pays is punished while the one who takes gets away. Incredible India indeed.