- Bribe Fighter
- 11 years ago
- 1911 views
I am a Government Official (not an Indian). Me and my team were…
I am a Government Official (not an Indian). Me and my team were on our official visit to one of our districts bordering Assam. Since, it was our first vsit to that district and since it passes through Assam, we weren't really sure of the way/directions. Although, I heard a lot about the conducts or rather bad conducts of the Policemen in that vicinity (stretches to over 100 kms), I had some confidence in them. Moreso, I thought there were 6 of them so there would be some hesitation to extort money from public (countrymen or foreigner). Also I believed each policeman would act as a check to each other and it was also just next to the road and on a broad daylight. With those things in mind, I asked my driver to pull over the car infront of the Traffic policemen in white uniform. From the car, I greeted them and asked whether we were on the right direction or not? The policemen didn't respond to my query but showed me a foeign currency which coincidentally happend to be my country's currency and asked whether we had Indian rupees with us. I knew their intention was not to exchange the foreign currency but to check how much money we were carrying so I responded by saying we had none. Next, one of the policemen asked us to give them some money "khana pina ka paisa" to which I replied by saying we don't have money. But this policeman was so quick to scan the car with his eyes and noticed our driver's money coming out of the pocket. The police in no time remarked with a smirk on his face, "see that's money coming out from his pocket, it's 500 n 1000 notes" (woh dekho paisa, panch sau aur haazar ka note hai toh). Then, I got irritated with that remark and told him that we want to go now to which he said why are we in a hurry, we can go slowly after we pay him some money for food and drinks. He was leaning on our car for all these times n at times he even patted me saying I had a nice body ha ha! I resisted for the last time and then with a frown on my face told him straight that they are dealing with Government officials and that they would face unpleasant consequences later. They weren't hesitating still so then I had no option but to show them my badge and office identity card. I had no option but to let them know that we are officers of Anti-Corruption Agency in our country. It was only then that they backed off and gave up the idea of extorting money from us. Instead they said they were just JOKING and showed us the right direction/way and let us go.
Had we not been from anti-corruption agency, the story would have been different and they would have squeezed money from us unnecesarily for no fault of ours or rather trusting them who are actually the CUSTODIANS OF LAW for help which I am sure everyone will agree is the least they can do.
Meanwhile, my colleague and driver had the SHOCK OF THEIR LIFE and kept thinking of the incident until we reached our destination and even when we were traveling back the same way they were anticipating such problems. Talking to some of my country folks, they shared similar stories and some even stated that they had no option but to pay the extorted sum of money unnecessarily. Some stories I heard are even worse and they say it's become a norm!
By the way, this happened between Mangaldoi and Rowta in Assam.
Having brought this issue to the notice of the readers or viewers here, I feel I have fulfiled my duty to REFRAIN, RESIST and REPORT corruption even beyond my jurisdiction! Hope everything will be alright n I earneatly pray that the entire world be free of the global menace - CORRUPTION!!!