• I Paid A Bribe
• 12 years ago
• 614 views

Bribe for verification of passport

• Passport
• Renewal of Passport
• Paid INR 600

It is so sad that people are so hungry of money. There was a passport which had to be renewed. I am not disclosing the person's details who had applied for passport (Lets call him Mr. P). On 15-Aug evening, he was talking on phone with some friend. In the background, there was somebody continuously calling. Finally Mr. P hung up the phone to call back the person who was so desperate to speak to him.

When Mr. P called the number, the person on other side was extremely rude. Mr. P said that he had received almost 10 missed calls. Then he revealed that it was somebody from local police station, and had "ordered" Mr. P to be present at 10.00 AM in his office next day for verification. Mr. P was a marketing person and travels a lot. When he said that he had already planned a tour for next 2-3 days, and would be leaving early next morning, the police man got angered.

On sunday, the police man went to his house (God knows why did he go...) and asked Mr. P to come to station next day, with all sorts of "wierd" documents. The twist in this story is that Mr. P already had received his passport some weeks back. So Mr. P wanted to know the purpose for investigation. When he revealed this to police man, he was extremely angered. He said that if he wished, he could still sent report to Passport department that details were incorrect and get his passport cancelled.

Finally next day, Mr. P went to police station. There they demanded of nothing less than Rs. 1500. It's not that Mr. P is extremely poor, but there is no reason that Mr. P should pay, especially when he has done nothing wrong. Above all, such verifications are part of their job, and government is already paying them.

Finally, with no other option left, Mr. P would be paying him some amount (Rs. 600) and some gift article as compensation, today evening, for not being able to pay total amount.

Just because Mr. P is scared that police does not trouble him in his life, and for the security of his family, he is spending that part of his hard earned income, with which his wife bought groceries for the month.

Ahh..I missed explaining what "weird" meant...He asked Mr. P to get his house-rent agreement, bank accounts statement and old passport. Mr. P had all these. So there was no reason that policeman could say "oh, you don't have this document, you need to pay now...blah! blah! blah!". He came up with a new story... He asked Mr. P to get his past house agreement. Practically, how many of us keep past agreements, when you already have a new one? Still Mr. P managed to get that. Again policeman could not say anything. So a new story... He asked Mr. P to produce tenant's verification receipt. I believe that hardly 5% or owners register their tenants. Based on this ground, policeman asked him to pay...what nonsense!!!