- I Paid A Bribe
- 14 years ago
- 540 views
Address Verification for Passport: Lucrative Job for Policemen
- Police
- Police Verification for Passport
- Paid INR 1,500
Address verification related to passport application in India is a time when every citizen would be forced to bribe a policeman. The reasons could be many: an ordinary citizen may not be in a position to check and verify whether his address proofs have fulfilled the existing terms laid down by the Passport authority, or even if the papers are in order, one has to pay the policeman for ‘**********’ (in return for the client’s happiness). Often, what the policeman says would be the law. In my case, I had read from the website of Delhi Passport Office what all documents I need to prove my address. I produced an address certificate from ICICI bank as my main proof. Yet, the policeman who was assigned to check the address kept on saying that my papers are not in order. But, before going to the actual story let me give you some related information.
I was a tenant in a house in ********** Delhi, which falls under Malviya Nagar police station authority. I had been working in a news organization in Greater **********-2 for 8 months, when I applied for passport in the PP office at Bikhaji Cama place in Delhi. This was in August 2009; my first passport had expired in 2008 and this was a renewal application, which effectively is the same as applying for a new passport. In the case of a renewal application, the only difference is that the applicant needs to produce only less number of documents. Now, about my excruciating experience while dealing with the policeman: When I returned home after a normal day’s work in office in September 2009, I received a message from the landlord that one policeman had called in his landline number asking for me. I knew that it would be for the address verification for my passport. I called the policeman back on his mobile phone. He, perhaps, sensed from my speech that I could not speak Hindi properly – I am from Kerala. He might have also thought that I could be made an easy target, for his subsequent behavior proved this. Let us call this policeman Balvant. I got an appointment with Balvant infront of Malviya Nagar police station the next day at 9.30 am.
I kept my appointment but Balvant turned up around half-an-hour late. I was wondering why the policeman was not coming to the place where I stay for checking the address. But when I recall the incidents that happened to me on that day, I now see that everything was pre-planned by him inorder to hook me. I produced all the documents I had, including a written statement from my company certifying my address, which I had got issued for the purpose of passport application. The policeman kept on saying all documents were from private companies. Apart these private company documents, I showed my old passport, my SSLC book, my degree certificate from Jawaharlal Nehru University, etc. Nothing was enough to prove that I was not a terrorist! I admit that I lacked a rent agreement and a tenant certificate. I was paying Rs.1,750/- for a single room in ********** Delhi at that time, which is actually a meager amount. I could afford only such a room. A rent agreement for such a low-cost accommodation is something unheard of. According to the policeman’s logic, or according to his pretension, my mistake was that I applied for a passport without getting a rent agreement/tenant certificate. Since I was staying in a low-cost room, I should not have applied for a passport, his argument sounded like this to me.
Nevertheless, I was given a paper in which I needed to get the signature of two of my neighbors. Please note, the policeman never came to my place. He asked me to get the signatures and see him in the afternoon at Srinivaspuri office. Getting the signatures of witnesses is actually his job, I told myself in vain. At the same time, the situation appeared ambiguous to me. The policeman said my address documents were not in order. Yet, he gave me a paper to get witnesses’ signatures and asked me to see him at an office at least 10 kms away from my place. What does this mean? If I get witnesses’ signatures, will he approve my application? If I anyway have to bribe him, why should I get the signature of the witnesses? Another impediment was to get the ID proof of witnesses. My landlord lent his Election ID card to show the policeman, but I could not convince the second witness to lend me his ID card for this purpose. Instead of the policeman coming to my place and checking my address and the ID of the witnesses, he asked me to see him in his office. This appeared absurd to me as well as to my neighbors.
I met Balvant in Srinivaspuri office. It was his turf. His colleagues were equally avaricious, it appeared. There were policemen speaking my language, Malayalam. Balvant asked these Malayalam-speaking policemen to convince me that my application will not pass without paying bribe. I talked to one such Malayalam-speaking policeman, calling him to the corner of a room. He said I would have to bribe at different levels where my application would be scrutinized. But I need not go separately to each desk and pay, but pay everything to Balvant, he said (one such desk would have been his own, I believe). I agreed and met Balvant again. When I agreed to pay bribe, Balvant’s hospitality was at its best. “Chai piyo”, he offered me the afternoon tea that was served on his table.
We moved to a verandah just infront. Before taking money from my purse, I suggested him we hide behind the tree there a bit. But Balvant appeared a seasoned bribe-taker and was not afraid whether anyone would see him do that. Earlier, the Malayali policeman had told me, out of some ethnic sympathy, that I should pay not more than Rs. 1,000/-. But when I actually took out money out of my purse infront of Balvant’s eyes, he warned me, “Isse kam nahi chalega” (this is not enough to make things work). Finally, I had to cough up Rs.1,500/- to get an assurance from him that my application will be cleared. Immediately after receiving money, Balvant took out the ICICI’s address certificate from my bunch of papers. It was a computer-generated certificate. But he asked me to get a stamp on it. I took an auto-rickshaw to Lajpat Nagar ICICI branch and got a stamp on the certificate. I thought, earlier Balvant was saying that my papers were not in order. If it were only a matter of getting a stamp on my address certificate, why did not he ask me earlier? He had very well noticed my address certificate from ICICI and had thought that with a stamp on it, my application would be cleared. But instead of telling me this, he asked for money first. When he got the money, he helped me follow the guidelines. Is law a tool for the greedy policemen to milk the citizens? What kind of a law is it, which does not recognize a computer-generated certificate? As law becomes more archaic, and not get updated in tune to emerging technologies, policeman would take advantage of it and innocent citizens would suffer.
Finally, I received a blank inland letter from the concerned police authorities, asking me to comment on the behavior of the policeman who came to verify my address. I replied in detail. I, first of all, said that the policeman did not come to my place at all. Secondly, he harassed me saying that my papers were not in order, whereas the papers were all right but a stamp on the address certificate. The policeman, with his arrogant behavior, was pressurizing me to pay him. The whole system has to be changed. I have no idea whether an action has been taken based on the feedback I sent on the inland letter.
Consider this, there are 1.2 billion people in India. At least 500 million would have a passport (just my guess). Each passport holder might have paid a policeman around Rs.500 to Rs.1,500 for his/her passport. The bribe money under this head itself would be a good portion of the nation’s GDP ! It’s an eye-opener for all.