- I Paid A Bribe
- 14 years ago
- 663 views
Do you want me to call the sergeant?
- Police
- Traffic Violations
- Paid INR 300
In my hometown, it was not compulsory to display the bike number on both the front and rear number plates. Displaying it on only the rear plate would suffice. The police never said anything.
A few months after I had taken the bike to Kolkata, I was standing at a red signal on the EM Bypass in Kolkata. Suddenly this white robed policeman asked me to bring the bike over to him. So I did. He asked me why I did not have the number printed on the front plate. I told him the reason stated above. He told me it was mandatory to have the number printed on both plates. I said okay, I didn't know that.. I'll get it printed the very next day. He wouldn't agree. He asked for my papers. So I showed it to him. I always kept every piece of necessary document in order so as to avoid precisely a situation like this. But this number plate fiasco I had not foreseen.
Unable to find any flaw with the documents (even my pillion rider was wearing a helmet!), he said that not carrying a proper front number plate implied a penalty. I pleaded with him saying that since I didn't know that, would he please excuse me this time, given that everything else was perfectly all right. (All the time, there were umpteen bikers with no helmets on --and most of them with no papers, I'll bet-- ambling past us.)
He wouldn't listen. He told me that if he called the sergeant, then my bike would be confiscated, I would have to pay 2 thousand as fine, beside the hackles of retrieving it from the police station.
I did not have either the time or the money and told him so. Of course, he was waiting for it! He told me to fork out Rs 300, and the matter would be settled. I could get the number printed later, so as to avoid a similar situation. So I paid him.