- I Paid A Bribe
- 14 years ago
- 1699 views
Paid a bribe to get acknowledgement that I had lost my mobile and that I had told the Police about this
- Police
- Retrieval of lost items
- Paid INR 100
I was new to Bangalore city. I had arrived only a few days back for my first job as an engineer. I was given hotel accommodation near Domlur. I was coming back to my accommodation and when I was getting down from the bus, someone took my mobile phone(the bus was too crowded for me to notice). I then took my friend along with me to the Police station to give a complaint that my mobile has been stolen(My friend told me that I had to do this to deactivate the sim). Mind you I am from Karnataka itself, and thus there was no problem of language too. I was under the impression that we would go, file complaint, get acknowledgement receipt and come back. After all, what complication can there be in this?. Or so I thought. When we went there, the constable - who has supposed to take the complaint - asked us to tell exactly where the mobile was stolen. I knew that he was asking this to give some sort of an excuse for it not being under his jurisdiction, and I was tempted to tell someplace near the police station itself. But then, I was too idealistic to tell a lie. So, I gave him the exact location where it was stolen. He said then that we had to go to some other police station(Indiranagar I think, if I remember right). We asked him if he can take it there itself. Then, when we were about to go, he asked that if we want just acknowledgement, he can give it there. He refused to take a complaint. When we agreed for just acknowledgement, he gave it and along with it some stamps(not postal ones, but the ones which have no value and are distributed just to collect money) and asked for some money in return. I told him I didn't have so much money with me, and showed him how much I had, and told I need some money to go back in auto as well(I really did not have that much money I think as I hadn't got my first paycheck). And I gave him less money than he had asked for, and more importantly , I did not take the stamps which he was giving in return for money. When we were going without taking the stamps, he called out aloud to take the stamps. My friend told me to do so. I refused to, and walked out of the police station. It has to be said that the police constable wasn't a very brazenly corrupt guy; he was slightly embarrassed too that he was asking for a bribe, but then a bribe is a bribe. Later my friend told me that he was surprised that I had acted in a way I had done.