- I Paid A Bribe
- 13 years ago
- 1581 views
Had to pay bribe to for passport verification
- Police
- Police Verification for Passport
- Paid INR 100
I do not remember the exact **********. It was when I used to study in Ahmedabad (Gujarat), in 2007. I had applied for my passport and had to undergo verification at nearest police station. I originally belong to Jamnagar (Gujarat) and was staying at a rented flat in Ahmedabad. I was suppose to take someone from my neighbours with me for the verification process. I took one of the residents in the flat opposite to ours with me. At the police station, there was a person who first verified all the documents (driving license xerox, rental agreement etc.). He took statement of my neighbour that he knew me and that I stayed at the mentioned address. After verifying everything, he told that my neighbour was free to go and that I had to stay for a little longer to ********** the Police Officer who will sign the verification form. Then my neighbour left. But before that he took me out of the room and asked me whether I had any cash with me. I had about 50 Rs. with me and told the same. He gave me 200 Rs. and informed me that he had his passport verification at the same police station and that in order to complete the work, I will need to pay bribe to the Police. Then he told me about the day he had his verification. At that time, when they demanded bribe even after all the formalities and legal documents were correct, my neighbour had told them that he wont give bribe. To this, they said: 'In that case, we will see how your verification documents are submitted to passport office...' And finally, since he had retorted, he had to end-up paying Rs. 500 so as to 'complete' the verification process.
After my neighbour left, I had to pay Rs. 100 as bribe to the person who had checked all the documents. Only after that, he took me to the Police Officer, who after confirming that I had paid the money upstairs, signed the verification form.
I was feeling very angry and disappointed by this entire process. Even after being legally correct, we had to pay bribe (or 'chai paani ka kharcha' - as they put it in their words). My conscience was hurt and time and again questions pop out in my mind: "Is this what our great martyrs had died for?", "Is this called Independence?", "What to do?"