- Bribe Fighter
- 13 years ago
- 2638 views
I decided not to pay a bribe to police
My bag with laptop, credit cards, important personal documents were stolen while travelling from Mumbai to Pune in early March 2011. Since I realized it mid-way, I was advised to report the same at Pune (my destination) and get an FIR registered for official purposes. However, after running from pillar to post, both in Pune as well as on my return to Mumbai the same evening (at Dadar), I realized that the police were reluctant to lodge the FIR citing flimsy reasons of it not being their jurisdiction, even though I tried to convince them that I didn't expect them to recover my lost belongings, but that I needed the FIR copy to procure duplicates of my documents and replacements for my credit cards, PAN card, etc.
I don't have any "contacts" within the Police Dept., hence had to run around for over two weeks to various police stations as the theft occurred during transit, and I wasn't quite sure at which stage of my journey the same may have happened.
Hence, after a month of running around, I decided not to pursue the matter with the police any more, and instead got a notarised affidavit which will hopefully help me obtain the duplicates of documents I had lost, and for future records.
Had I paid a bribe to the police, I am sure I would have got the FIR lodged promptly, but as I chose not to, I had to settle for the next best legal option available to a common citizen like me.
Moreover, I also realized that the police are answerable for action taken against FIRs lodged by them, hence they are generally reluctant to register one, when there is little or no chance of closing the case satisfactorily. I would urge the lawmakers and senior police officers to do away with such archaic practice, as it adversely affects citizens like me from getting the help from law.