• I Paid A Bribe
• 13 years ago
• 201 views

Late night bribe to a drunk cop simply for riding too late in auto-rickshaw

• Police
• Activities on Beat
• Paid INR 50

Last night I was riding in an autorickshaw at about 1.30 AM and was stopped by cops that were stationed on the road halfway up JC Nagar Main Rd. I had just arrived just after 1 AM from a trip with friends to Kerala and was dropped at my friend's place in Benson Town. Our bus driver thankfully drove me from Benson Town up to JC Nagar intersection with Nandi ********** Rd so I was able to find a rickshaw to go up into RT Nagar to go home. Immediately as I walked out of the bus, an auto-rickshaw was pulling up, so we negotiated a price and were on our way. About 1 1/2 km later there were two cops sitting near their bike and stopped the rickshaw as we drove past. He immediately started asking me who i was and why I was out so late. Both the auto-driver and I explained that I got dropped off directly to the auto-rickshaw driver from a tourist vehicle, and I had just been in the bus for 10 hours and also had to be at work in the morning. The cop murmured some words in Kannada to the driver, with "50" in english. After I asked the cop to let us go as there was no reason to be stopped and it was late and I was sleepy, he started asking for my work ID card, which I do not have as I work at a small NGO. Then they kept saying that because I didn't have any ID on me that they'd need to take me to the station. Then, as they saw my backpack sitting next to me on my seat, they wanted to go through my backpack. Knowing I didn't want them to touch any of my stuff, I dug around in pocket discreetly and passed 50 rupees to the auto-driver who passed it to the cop. After which, the cop and his other cop friend didn't say a word and just walked off. The worst part of all of this is that the cop who was doing most of the speaking was visibly drunk, slurring his words, eyes set back in his head and not even standing all that straight. I was ready to be home after such a long day and as there was nothing I could do to get the guy out of my face except give some cash, so I did so. I'm more annoyed than anything else at the abuse of power here, in effect creating a problem for you to have to solve by bribing, a problem that the cop created in the first place that had no merit. I can't say I'm surprised.