- Bribe Fighter
- 13 years ago
- 473 views
WANTED MONEY FROM ME FOR VIOLATION I DID NOT COMMIT...
It was October 17, 2009 (I remember that day as it was my first dewali festival after returning to India) I was riding motorcycle with my dad to TATA dealer to finalize on the FIAT car I wanted to purchase. At the signal (KH Road & Siddaiah Road) I had stopped for red signal, my motorcycle engine shut-down suddenly and I was at the center of the lane with lorry behind me and also the road was busy with traffic. So, I decided to move my motorcycle to the side of the road, so I can start it again. Also, I did not want to create traffic nuisance by staying in the middle of the road with motorcycle engine off.
Luckily, my motorcycle started immediately and we were on our way to the TATA dealership. As Siddaiah road is one way, we had to drive until couple of intersections down to make a turn to reach our destination. We were immediately stopped by the sub-inspector and were asked to see the senior officer on duty. The senior officer asked for the driving license and insurance and my dad, as being very organized pulled out everything from the toolkit box from the motorcycle. He even had the emission test done and motorcycle registration papers in order.
The senior police officer asked me to pay a fine of rupees 200 for jumping the red signal. Me and my dad argued with the police, how we can jump the signal when it had just turned green and all vehicles were moving. Also, there were vehicles ahead of us and behind us, which were not stopped. Then the officer changed his story to tell us that we made an illegal turn on the one-way street and came on the road where we were stopped. I explained to him and what has happened with my motorcycle and how I had to re-start it at the signal. He started to say I was lying and his sub-ordinate was not. We told him may-be he is confused with the situation and tried to explain him in more detail. He got upset and started saying being educated persons like us should not lie to him and just pay the fine. We got upset and my dad said to check the motorcycle record or both our driving record if he does not believe us as we had not traffic incidents so far. As we argued more about what had really happened, we were surprised to hear what he said about us moving to side of the road so we don’t obstruct the traffic. This is the exact quote from senior police officer: “Don’t care about the traffic, if it gets jammed, let it be. You should not move to side to allow others to drive. You should stay in the middle of the road and start your motorcycle and then ride off.”
If a senior level police officer, who is supposed to ensure smooth traffic flow and also make sure everyone follows the traffic rules, does not care about traffic jams or anything, but just wants to collect fine and put it in the paper saying they collected “x” amount of money from civilians for traffic violations. What kind of traffic police duty are they following? I was glad I did not pay the fine, but was surprised by his reaction as I was trying to be considerate for other commuters.
Just after this argument, I found out that I had actually ran out of gas, so my motorcycle had turned off.