- Bribe Fighter
- 13 years ago
- 2168 views
Didn't pay a bribe, so got screwed
Chennai is a city where I used to have some respect for the policemen, since they appeared not to be unnecessarily demanding for bribes, unlike other places such as Ahmedabad where I have been to. But the myth was broken when I was riding as a pillion on my bike with my friend, who wanted to test drive my Karizma ZMR on the way to office. On the way to office, there are two signals, hardly 20m apart. Both signals showed red light, but it being quite late at night (close to 11.30 PM), my friend pushed forward to the second signal and stopped there behind a truck, as there was almost zero traffic. The policemen, who I have seen generally harassing people at this time of the night, got into action. My friend refused to pay the Rs. 300 demanded by the policeman, since we had all the relevant papers and he was also wearing the helmet. After all, they don't even catch the people who jump signals in broad daylight when the traffic is at its peak. At this time of the night, it was even no use keeping the traffic signals alive; people have that much sense of traffic!! So the policeman later sent us a penalty note of Rs. 1050/- later on to my office address. But of course, after this incident, I doubt if those policemen were really for their duty or for harassing innocent people. Also, I doubt if it would have been better had we settled the case for Rs. 100/- or so.