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Not the real McCoy - Encounters with a "Traffic Cop"

The car I drive is registerd in Jamshedpur (JH registration for the uninitiated). Needless to say in Bangalore I am a little wary of the traffic police and have been mostly lucky in escaping scrutiny.

However, in the last 6 months I have been stopped thrice on the roads and asked to show registration certificate and road tax receipt.

Now here’s the interesting part, on all three occasions I have been stopped by the same cop.

This guy is in his early fifties, grey-walrus moustache, salt and pepper hair part hidden by a helmet, wears the Khaki uniform and rides a Hero Honda CD 100.

His modus operandi:-

Picking out a non-KA registration vehicle, he asks it to stop. "Show road tax receipt… come with me to Police Station, ….RTO’s car is coming just behind me… you have to pay Road Tax of INR 30,000/-" is his opening pitch in staccato English.

He closes with "Ok. This is last time. Give something quickly"…palm outstretched.

First time he made me stop at Inner-ring Road and I paid him 200/- bucks. Second time he stopped me at Madivala market in the evening. I did not immediately recognise it was the same guy. This time I gave him 100/- and as he rode away I realised this is the same guy.

I got my lucky break last Monday when he stopped me again in the morning on Banerghatta Road. Needless to say this time I was prepared.

As he hailed me to the side, I lowered the window and signalled him to come to the driver’s side of the window. I was trying to play the cool dude.

He came and started his opening pitch….“Show road tax receipt, RTO is coming, you have to pay fine…..”

I took out a pen and paper and told him with full confidence “Give me your name and Badge number. Follow my car, I’ll take you to the Police Station. This is the third time you are asking me for money”.

Now guys I am not exaggerating here. He mumbled a name Ramamurthy, and quickly turned his bike around and sped away. He was bluffing and this time I called.

Seeing how quickly he turned tail, it is possible that the guy is either not a cop or an ex or suspended cop who is just trying to make a fast buck.
Should he stop you, say hello from me and try to take down his service details. It will save your day.
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Comments

  1. --xh--May 8, 2008 at 6:29 PM

    yeah.. cops @ blr have this habit of having a field day whn they get a non KA reg bike/car... once i was caught, but the Cop was a good guy - when i said that i have the tax recipt and i will show him if he wants, he did let me go... (yeah, i had the certificate - it was my friends bike)
    once i stoped my bike near a cop to ask way, and that bastard took my key saying that i stopped at a no atopping zone and took the only twenty rupee I had with me...

    but baring that, i was lucky all the time, and never had bad experience from police... but many of my friends had lot of experiences like you had..
    Good that you acted smart.. :-)
    a high five to you, comrade...

    ReplyDelete
  2. JPKMay 12, 2008 at 1:26 AM

    Hi Comrade,

    Kudos to you for screwing up the cop, cops in Bangalore deserve it.
    By the way, have you paid for the NOC yet?

    Regards,

    Jude

    ReplyDelete
  3. New guyMay 13, 2008 at 10:19 AM

    @xh: Maybe next time i run into this fake cop I'll ask him to pay me or else I report him to the real cops.

    @Jude: I reserve my reply for obvious reasons :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 29, 2008 at 11:55 PM

    Good one...when will you do the same to KOPUs...visited ur blog after quite some time and enjoyed my stay as usual....
    A post on hamdo is long pending

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  5. New guyMay 30, 2008 at 12:49 PM

    @Babun: Welcome back. Post on Hamdo is indeed overdue...maybe i should do it on my next Calcutta visit as a refresher course will certainly enrich the content :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. --xh--November 3, 2008 at 9:34 AM

    comrade, itz been long time.. where are you?

    ReplyDelete

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