This was a very interesting incident that happened during my recent travel from Goa to Mumbai. Alcohol is bit cheaper in Goa, so my friend requested to me get a bottle of “Feni” for him. If you have a permit you can legally bring in 2 bottles of alcohol in Mumbai ( this was told to me by a shopkeeper ). Our train was on time and arrived at 5.00 am at Thane station. Sometimes at the station there are railways officers to check bags for alcohol or any other non-importable goods.
I was stopped by two officers asking me if I was carrying any alcohol. So I promptly showed them the bottle along with the permit. In spite of this officer told me to wait on the side and they continued to check other passenger bags. Unfortunately for them they didn’t find anyone else carrying any alcohol. Finally it was me and those 2 officers left on the platform. One of the officers told me that it is illegal to bring any alcohol in Mumbai and I will have to pay a fine of Rs. 3000, followed by a court case. I will also have to appoint a lawyer and fight my case. They also tried to threaten me with jail sentence of 6 months. To by bad luck on the permit instead of travel to “Mumbai” it was written “Daman”. One of the officers read that and became more furious and started to threaten me with bullshit like your engineering degree will be confiscated, they will send a report to my employer and I will be fired from my job etc. By this time I knew that this officers wanted bribe from me. Indirectly they were asking a bribe of Rs. 3000.
I knew I had made a mistake of taking the wrong permit, so I was willing to pay the fine and refused to pay any bribe in a polite manner. In the meantime, one of the officers was checking my mobile phone. He asked me to remove memory card from my phone which he then inserted in his mobile and ( I think ) copied a few songs to his mobile. I wonder if this was a part of his duty 🙂
I was then taken to another platform for further action. I quietly followed them. While we were walking, one of the officer was still convincing me to pay the bribe and advising me not to follow legal procedures. But I insisted on paying the fine if they could provide me correct receipt. Finally in about 30 min, I think they realized that I was not going to cave in and they told me to go. Before I left one of the officers said politely “Give us some money according to your convenience” to which I replied “no, thank you” and I walked away. I don’t know if it was a lucky day for me or unlucky day for those officers 🙂
To be frank I was a bit scared in the beginning, but then I made up my mind that I won’t give any bribe and was ready to face any consequences. I did my bit to decrease amount of corruption in our country, so say “NO” to bribery!!!
Believe it or not … it happens only in India 🙂
[…] Originally Posted At: http://kurund.com/blog/2010/11/29/say-no-to-bribery/ […]
good for you to stand up and say no 🙂
but is this true or is this a tall tale? have u been talking to PJ lately?
lobo
All the characters and facts mentioned in above story are non-fictional and bear resemblance to living people. 🙂
Happened with me 2 days back. We had 6 bottles and 3 permits. Two officers caught us at Thivim station when we were returning to Mumbai. We didnt realize the permits had Daman & Diu as destination till those two pointed it to us.
They started blowing the same threats. They took me to the police outpost and told that the liquer will have to be seized following a case. I said I was interested in neither.
They then came up with ” Hamara dhyan rakho, hum apka dhyaan rakhenge”. They knew that my train’s showing up in 10 mins and I had to act.
Paid them rs. 200/- and i was gud to go.
I think now it’s fair enough to say most of these railway officers are corrupt.
Same kinda incident but this time the place which we face it was in Karnataka, bloody the police took all the bottle from my friends and they got bribe of two thousand rupees.,
But why are the permits given to Daman and Diu only,as if it is a ‘by default’ thing?
I think it is not allowed to bring in alcohol from other states to Maharashtra. “Daman and Diu” might be default things that our local alcohol wholesaler writes.