A Bihar farmer begged in the streets of his village to collect money, hold your breath now, to pay a bribe!

Braving the scorching sun, 40-year-old Chabila Paswan alias Saurabh Kumar of Vaishali district, along with the members of his family, hit the streets of his village on Saturday, pleading with its 500-odd residents for donations so he could pay a bribe of Rs 1,000 to a police officer.

“Chadhawa diye bina koi kaam nahin hota hai (No work gets done without making an offering),” the SHO told Paswan.

As Paswan and his family members walked through the streets, someone contributed Rs 5, others Rs 10 and some even Rs 50. In a few hours, he had collected Rs 1,000.

He then purchased 10 postal orders, each of Rs 100 denomination. He then sent the postal orders to the secretariat of the chief minister, with letter to Nitish Kumar requesting that “if the law permits” the money be forwarded to Manoj Kumar Gupta, Station House Officer (SHO) of Katahara police station, who had asked for the bribe money. The SHO’s demand came in response to the farmer’s request that the police vacate the encroachment on his land by a local strongman.

“Please deposit the money in the Chief Minister’s Welfare Fund, or if the law permits send it to the Katahara SHO who demanded a bribe to register my case,” the poor farmer wrote to Nitish.

As soon as the letter reached the CM’s Secretariat, top officials got into action. The Bihar DGP asked the Vaishali SP, U K Sinha, to immediately look into the matter. Sinha suspended the SHO, and issued instructions that departmental proceedings be initiated against Gupta. The SP then asked the DSP concerned to inquire into the case.

The local cops eventually summoned the farmer to the police station where his complaint was lodged. “Now I am hopeful of getting justice,” a beaming Paswan said.