The Business of Bribery

Bribing, as every respectable Mumbaikar knows, is the bread and butter fueling our city’s sordid engine. It’s the grease that oils our business in every sense of the word, and judging by this Asian Age article on bribery rate cards, it’s something that oils our police forces too. As it turns out, our cops divide stations into categories depending on their bribe potential, where Colaba and Bandra would be ranked “A” presumably for being prime extorting territory and stations in Govandi and Deonar as “C” for being a bit barren.

“According to the officer, a senior police inspector from a category A police station makes around Rs. 2 lakh per month, while his orderly makes around Rs. 20,000. ‘While the ACP is higher in rank, his/her post, unlike the senior PI’s, is only for administrative purposes, which is why he/she earns far less than the latter. Money for the senior police inspector is either collected by his orderly or a mill special constable. The hafta is generally collected from bars, gambling or prostitution dens, hawkers etc. A senior PI also gets money from local builders and other entrepreneurs directly,’ the source claimed.”

And if that isn’t enough to warm the flaps of your wallets, you’ll be thrilled to learn that the social services branch—that would be the department headed by one ACP Dhoble—“makes the most” and has “independent agents (not from the force) to collect haftas on their behalf”.

Khaki, the colour of corruption? [Asian Age]