Standing up to bullies is the only way to tackle them

Representational image. Pic/iStock

A cafe owner who allegedly ran various illegal businesses was arrested recently on charges of extortion by the Malwani police. Police sources said the accused used to arrive in a BMW to collect weekly bribes from hawkers and pavement vendors near his establishment.

In what is reminiscent of a Bollywood movie, but is real life, if a person refused to pay up, his henchmen would beat them up and threaten to shoot them in the head. He would allegedly forcibly take money from people's pockets and if he visited shops or stalls, he would physically take money from cash boxes. Paralysed by fear, no one had complained until now. The complaint was then lodged by a person weary of making payments. The police are encouraging others to come forward.

This seems like an old-style horror movie where the villain and his henchmen extort a village and everybody is too afraid to complain or resist as they face dire consequences.

How many more such henchmen are extorting small vendors etc through strong-arm tactics and threats of injury or even death? How many hawkers are paying up? We hear that there is a hawkers' mafia in different areas, controlled by a henchman who collects regular payment through goons.

The only way to stem this is to complain collectively. Go right down to the root of what is a criminal and extortion-driven ecosystem. There may be people of authority in collusion with these henchmen. That too, needs to be investigated. There has to be seen if this is a pattern across the city, maybe not as brazen, but in different avatars.

For people to live in fear, bow down to criminal force and feel they have no option to complain or avenue for justice is certainly a very unhealthy or no way to live and a pointer of corruption endemic in society.