[airbus]

On 31 March 2022, while driving on East West Corridor (NH-27) at a place Manigachhi, Bihar (GPS coordinates E86.131820 N26.218144), we were stopped by few guys wearing high visibility vest (not in uniform) demanding ₹600 as 2 months entry tax for Bihar. They claimed to be traffic police. After arguments they came down to ₹400. I demanded receipt and ID. They produced some kind of ID, but when I tried to take picture, they let me go without paying any money. This appears to be an extortion attempt. My dashcam captured couple of guys as well as the entire conversation. They posted a sticker (photo given below) on my windshield before demanding money.

https://youtu.be/SGAnI6-26oo

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by airbus

On 31 March 2022, while driving on East West Corridor (NH-27) at a place Manigachhi, Bihar (GPS coordinates E86.131820 N26.218144), we were stopped by few guys wearing high visibility vest (not in uniform) demanding ₹600 as 2 months entry tax for Bihar.

Extraordinary to be doing this in broad daylight with such impunity. Please tweet to MoRTH copying Nitin Gadkari, NHAI etc.

Glad you insisted on a government receipt.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by airbus

On 31 March 2022, while driving on East West Corridor (NH-27) at a place Manigachhi, Bihar (GPS coordinates E86.131820 N26.218144), we were stopped by few guys wearing high visibility vest (not in uniform) demanding ₹600 as 2 months entry tax for Bihar. They claimed to be traffic police. After arguments they came down to ₹400. I demanded receipt and ID. They produced some kind of ID, but when I tried to take picture, they let me go without paying any money. This appears to be an extortion attempt. My dashcam captured couple of guys as well as the conversation.

This is a scam. Hadn’t happened in the past 10+ years or at least I am not aware of. Coincidentally, I was on this road on 1st April but did not spot any thing / any one doing similar shenanigans. Earlier they used to extort money in name of reflectors / reflective tapes, but that was before 2010 IIRC.



They spotted an outside registration vehicle and thought it’s an easy prey.

In case any of you face something similar, just remember a place you have passed few kms away before and mention you belong there, local dialect helps. Thanks to ever helpful BHPian PapaBravo for pointing me to this post.

[Aditya]

Entry Tax scam on East West Corridor (NH-27) at Manigachhi, Bihar - Posts moved to a new thread.

[ABHI_1512]

Originally Posted by airbus

I demanded receipt and ID. They produced some kind of ID, but when I tried to take picture, they let me go without paying any money. This appears to be an extortion attempt. My dashcam captured couple of guys as well as the entire conversation.

Good on you for brazing it out through the crooks These fly by night operators prey on innocent citizens who don’t take the pain of asking !! I went through your dashcam conversation, upon asking what’s written on the receipt, the guy said and I quote- Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of Delhi

The same thing was happening on the Srikakulam- Vizag sector some years back. Motorists should be alert in not giving into these crooks. It’s horrendous that these things are happening in broad daylight ! And entry tax for two months- that itself was the red flag !!

[amods]

Clearly a scam. This happens at quite a few places in Bihar and Jharkhand. Correct course of action on your behalf.

[johy]

What a scam. No doubt with the blessings of the local politicians/cops.

[anjan_c2007]

Great to see you demanding their ID card and a receipt for the transaction. They gave up it appears. The guys by their looks, movements and talks look amateurish and are taking their baby steps into the world extortion and further criminal activities. This NH 27 spot appears to be one of their field training grounds. And be sure that they will soon shift the location for their criminal activities to some new site, very likely the next day. Day to day shifting makes them less vulnerable to a law enforcement agency swoop on them and thereafter detain them (if they are unable to bribe the agency).

This looks overtly like paying Rs 600=00 for a two month VISA to enter Bihar. These crooks after wasting nearly four minutes talking during the dashcam recording must have thought about the unproductive minutes and hence rather than get explain details and get trapped thought of letting your vehicle move on scot free.

But the fact is that they are stopping so many other vulnerable motor vehicles for extortion in broad daylight.

[BoneCollector]

You did a great job in demanding their ID. This has been going on for some time on that stretch of highway but government and police is either sleeping or hand in gloves with them. I've never been to that side but have heard something similar from a fauji friend of mine who took this highway last month. Were you driving an out station car? That might have led them to stop you.

Here is another video from that same highway around somewhere near with a different modus operandi.

https://youtu.be/-5YQZpFzLD4

[Singh101]

Oh wow. Someone flags me down in high risk routes like the one you were on, they're inviting being run over by two tonnes of Mahindra Scorpio, damn the consequences.

I have, in the past, blown past a "police" barricade in a particularly-well-known-for-dacoity area in MP. I saw some suspicious looking chaps with sticks, no one in any sort of passable police uniform, rusty, haphazardly placed barricades and no police vehicles.

Saw them from a distance. Made a calculated decision to not stop and deal with a proper flag down later on, if that. Sped up, went off road and blew through the side while they shouted and waved their sticks. Again took a good look at them driving past- still think I made a solid decision- those weren't cops.

Stay safe out there.

[airbus]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Please tweet to MoRTH copying Nitin Gadkari, NHAI etc.

Yes, I tweeted but no response so far. I will keep on asking

I have also registered grievance with Centralized Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) at https://pgportal.gov.in. Got a registration number like MORTH/E/2022/xxxxxxxx.

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

Were you driving an out station car? That might have led them to stop you.

Yes, I was driving a Karnataka registered vehicle with registration number starting with KA01.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by airbus

I have also registered grievance with Centralized Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) at https://pgportal.gov.in. Got a registration number like MORTH/E/2022/xxxxxxxx.

Great! CPGRAMS will definitely contact you.

[Excommunicado]

Glad you did not give in to this guy's fake confidence Mr. Airbus sir. Good job! The audacity with which he was demanding money was simply outrageous!
I have a "TOLL FREE" I-card yet I am not exempted from toll at some toll booths. I never argue. They say it is invalid for health professionals. I say 'Understandable, have a nice day!' flash my fast tag which I keep in my centre console and don't unnecessarily block others.
Your upright behaviour is the right way to go. Too many people trying to leech our hard earned money with support from goons in multiple uniforms. I don't know how and if they are punished when caught. Unlikely and unfair.

[Guru_Shikhar]

Wow. That is an experience. What should one do if he wishes to travel in his own vehicle with his family and kids in these areas of our beautiful country. Going through UP and Bihar is a (still) a great risk this is what I hear when I discuss my road trip plans with the experienced people in family, friends, colleagues.

This is not possible with some support/ backing from someone influential.

Looks have to wait for all the express highways in this region to be completed and choosing safest ways ( means losing chance to drive on countryside roads and watch actual India ) and to go non stop without any hurdle like this.

Cheers.

[ArTigor]

This is a common practice in border districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, as my relatives are spread out between Solapur(MH) and Vijapur(KA) and my farm is just a km away from MH KA border we have to do quite frequent visits on KA side.
This is actually a well knitted web under the loophole of system.
So here is a brief description on these people and mode of operation.

Most of the rural police stations are short of staff hence they recruit 'Helpers' or 'Helper Police' there are obviously local terms for them too. This recruitment is done at the local police station level, the role of these helpers are to assist the constables in documentation work, field visits and general operations of the police stations.

These Helpers are of two types:-
1 - In states like MH there is something known as Home Guards, These are kind of security guard personel who are called on duty on specific occations like election duty, rally, festivals, riots etc. they have the official khaki uniform and also have a home guard badge knitted on their uniform and looks just like the police emblem, they also have an official homeguard ID card. To the uninformed it can be really tough to diffrentiate between the Home Guard and normal Police Sub Constable. Homeguards have no whatsoever legal powers though. Generally a person from the Home Guard force with 'good contacts' is hired for the Helper Police post.
2 - These are generally the notorious persons who have deep connects into everything wrong that is hapening in the Tehsil, from sand mafia to gambling clubs, feuds between groups and influencial local politicians. These men also become important Khabri of the police hence they are hired as the Helper police. They do not have any ID card unlike the home guard or neither khaki uniform. So these guys when hired as Helper police, purchase the army camouflage pants from local markets wear a reflector jacket and carry a danda, this is their general visual description.

Now how do they operate?
These Helper police act as drivers and helpers to the Inspector and Sub Inspector i.e. tasks like driver, bringing and submitting documents, notices from police station etc. Many a times it is actually these guys who go for late night patrolling. Hence they have the official vehicles in their hand.
If you go to a rural police station you will see that the official vehicles have no use for most of the time. So these helpers form a group of 3-4 people, and take these official vehicles for the entry tax vasooli.
Generally there will be one Home Guard Helper in his khakee uniform who will be sitting inside the vehicle posing as the 'saheb'. Another 3 helpers will be on the road wearing the reflector jackets, army camo pants and danda in hand, and stopping vehicles. Many a times you will see official Sumo with red beacon also used by these thugs.
Their usual targets are out of state/district cars, non fleet trucks and transport vehicle. Believe me our cars are MH02 and MH47 registrations, yet these thugs stop us in our native place which is MH13, only when they see my driving lisence which is MH13 they let us go seeing that we are locals, Whenever I take my brothers car which is MH13 they never stop us.
They will never mess with the bigger fleet transport/goods operators as they have deep connects, but standalone operators are targetted.
For cars they start off at Rs2000 buut settle at 500 for trucks, tempos and pickups they start at 5000 but if negotiated they settle at 2000.
Their usual timings are early mornings and late evenings when the saheb is off duty, and afternoons when there is hardly any work at the police station. This used to happen at late night in my area too but then few years ago, there were incidences where truckers were fedup these guys and drove over them in a couple of occasions killing them taking advantage of seclusion at night, so these thugs have stopped this looting in the wee hours.

Only way to get through these thugs is carry all your documents in hard copy, these helpers as well as rural police have no clue about digilocker.
Sweet talk through these thugs especially during late evening, believe me sometimes they are drunk and a heated argument is the least you want to get into with them.

Some knowledge of local language is also beneficial, like when I visit karnataka side of the border and get stopped for entry tax, I start off conversation in my broken Kannada, this helps a lot.