- I Paid A Bribe
- 10 years ago
- 637 views
I reside in Mumbai and had recently been near the US Consulate at…
- Police
- Police Harassment
- Paid INR 600
I reside in Mumbai and had recently been near the US Consulate at Bandra Kurla Complex and had unintentionally parked my car at the no parking zone on the street opposite the US consulate after dropping off my brother and sister in law. I did not pay attention to the no parking sign since there were a number of cars parked there and I was in the car. In a few minutes the traffic police arrived and started collecting our licenses. I panicked and gave my license to him without much reasoning. They mentioned that their supervisor would be coming in some time and we could collect our licenses then after paying the requisite fine which I assumed would be Rs. 100. I was really tense since this was the first time such thing had happened to me. Later I spoke to a guy who had paid Rs 600 to get his license back from the very policemen who had confiscated the licenses in the first place. The traffic constable called me and asked for Rs 1200, I was shocked and I mentioned that I just had 300 with me. They reduced their fine to 600 after that. They asked me to get the PUC certificate, insurance and the RC book, probably to extort more money if I didn't have any of those documents. I had all but I wasn't sure if a photocopy of the registration smart card would suffice so I thought it'll be a better idea not to show them that. Later I got another 300 from my brother and paid 600 to them. When I asked for a receipt, the constable (Bike registration MH 18 AL 9598) mentioned he didn't have the book and if I wanted the receipt we could accompany him to Vakola police station. I didn't want to drag the matter further so I chose not to get the receipt.
I know I made a number of wrong decisions that day maybe because I was ill-informed and hence I got nervous.
I have a few questions, can you please provide an answer to the same so that I could avoid such an incident in the future:
1. If the driver is in the car at the no parking zone, can he be fined or can his license be confiscated? What exactly is the difference between "No Parking" and "No stopping or standing"?
2. Which are the documents one must keep in the car and will the photocopy of those suffice?
3. A guy there mentioned that BKC doesn't fall in the jurisdiction of BMC and hence the penalties are different, sounds weird but is that true?
4. Under what circumstances can a traffic policeman ask for all the car related documents (point 2)? For instance, can he / she ask for the same if a car is parked in a No parking zone.
6. If the license has been confiscated, can the person drive on the basis of the challan and by when can he / she collect his / her license.
7. Finally, is there a rulebook / guidelines which tells us all that we need to know?