Has the request “May I request you to …” to end with a question mark?

May I request you to kindly collect the brief?

or

May I request you to kindly collect the brief.

Which of the above two sentences is correctly punctuated?

Added afterwards: This request is to be made to a very senior official. This request is meant to be a polite form of asking the official to do the task of collecting the brief. He, being a very senior official, could not be given a command; he can only be requested, where the request should be extra polite and he does not feel that he is being commanded.

Solution 1:

You really have two problems. The first is a matter of punctuation, and as such this is a matter of style, so the answer to it will depend on what manual of style you use. Mine is the Chicago Manual of Style, which recommends that a request "courteously disguised as a quesiton" not be terminated with a question mark but a period. Thus

May I request you to kindly collect the brief.

The second problem is a social one. If you are writing in a culture that requires more attention be paid to politeness and hierarchy than is required in Chicago, then by all means replace the period with a question mark.

Solution 2:

If would be voiced as a question it should end with a question mark. If it would be voiced as a command (eg, a stern teacher telling a student what to do) then it is not a question, regardless of the literal wording, and the question mark is not appropriate. The question mark serves to indicate the tone of voice, and what that tone implies.