• I Paid A Bribe
• 14 years ago
• 533 views

Nightmare while buying apartment in Bangalore

• Stamps and Registration
• Registration of Property
• Paid INR 23,000

Ok.. Here is my story..
After living outside India for about 6 years, I decided to move back to India after getting a good job offer back in Bangalore.

I don't want to say that I have never encountered bribe demands before, I lived earlier in Delhi for about 25 years of my life.. Anyway those encounters I will tell in my another post..

But I didn't it expected this time to so blunt this time in Bangalore.. My dream destination..

In November 20XX, I decided to settle down in Bangalore and zeroed in on an apartment.. My broker introduced me a to a housing registration "expert" lawyer in Jayanagar..

He informed me that registration fee is about Rs.2,30,000/- and I have to pay 10% of this amount as bribe in ********** Nagar Sub-Registrar office. This is to close the registration process in one sitting, otherwise this lawyer denied taking up my case... He said without bribe it will take 10-15 visits to the office and lawyer fees will be almost equal to the bribe money.. So there is no point taking all the hassles and paying up same to lawyer instead to Sub-Registrar office...

Ok.. My property broker insisted.. don't listen to your NRI instincts and pay the bribe.. this is normal here..

Lawyer fixed time with Sub-Registrar office, and amazingly I got time of about 12.30pm.. That's right.. it's during their lunch time in office and they are extending their services to bribe paying customers.. Amazing..

On the registration day.. went there with my pockets stuffed with bribe money with some Rs. 5,000/- extra money for paying to other staffers whoever are involved in registration process...

Time to do fingerprint scanning as part of the registration process.. the poor guy doing fingerprint scanning .. he was trying clean his computer mouse and said its not working... my lawyer pushed a finger on my arm to indicate pay-up.. I taken a Rs. 500/- note and give to fingerprint scanning guy.. and suddenly computer mouse started working.. wow..

Now turn of registration process.. Lawyer told me that I don't need go to ********** the higher office for registration he will take care of everything.. I just have sit on a bench an wait.. and then he asked me to hand over the registration fee along with bribe money.. I was a bit nervous.. in hurry.. one Rs.1000/- note left in my pocket.. and handed over rest of the money to lawyer.. After 5 minutes lawyer returned looking frowning.. "Are you trying to cheat the officer??" he asked angrily.. I said why?? He then said.. you have given Rs. 1000/- less in bribe.. I checked my pockets and realized my mistake and given it to my honest lawyer.. and said pass on my apologies to Mr ******* ..

Well I think.. this much is enough to report my bribe paying incidence.. Now I can feel less guilt whenever I look at my property papers..