Lose more money to recover lost phone
It is a cruel irony that when one visits the police station to record the loss of some item, one is forced to pay the writer there to register the First Information Report. So, the individual has to suddenly deal with a double loss.
One of the reasons why the common man or woman has started frequenting police stations is the loss of a cell phone. Police refuse to reigster the complaint unless sums ranging between Rs 50 and Rs 200 is given. The amount charged is directly proportional to the cost of the mobile.
One of our respondents from Bangalore writes about how he was asked to pay Rs 4,000 as bribe to get back the high-end phone that he lost in a mall. The cop demanded the money as expenses incurred towards investigation purposes. Our respondent haggled for long and managed to reduce the bribe demanded to Rs 1,000. In addition to that, the cop also demanded the cheap mobile he was using temporarily since he lost he good one. This made the Bangalorean ponder if the cops are operating a racket in connivance with local thugs to steal phones and then return them to the owner at some cost http://ipaidabribe.com/bribe-central/bribe-paid-get-back-lost-mobile.
One of our respondents from Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu refused to pay the bribe demand of Rs 2,000 made by local police cops. He threatened to file an online complaint regarding the missing phone and this only made the cops threaten him with other consequences.
All this goes to prove that an efficient system is in place, like registering an FIR and letting the investigation take its course. However, it is being abused by wrong individuals.
By Juwairia Mekhri