Observing that “everyone wants to loot this country”, the Supreme Court today said the only panacea to rid the country of corrupt elements was to “hang a few of them” from a lamp post.“The only way to rid the country of corruption is to hang a few of you from the lamp post. The law does not permit us to do it but otherwise we would prefer to hang people like you from the lamp post,” a Bench of Justices S B Sinha and Markandeya Katju remarked during arguments put forth by an accused.The Bench’s scathing observations came during the hearing of a bail application moved by one Braj Bhushan Prasad, a dismissed employee of the Bihar government for his alleged involvement in the Rs 1000-crore fodder scam.As counsel R Singh tried to make a submission, Justice Katju said, “Everywhere we have corruption. Nothing is free from corruption. Everybody wants to loot this country. The only solution for this menace is to hang some people in the public so that it acts as a deterrent on others.”The counsel’s submission that Bhushan was a mere budget accounts officer further infuriated the Bench, which observed, “Look at that. You are supposed to audit the funds, but see what you have done.”- R BALAJI
