Motihari, Dec. 29: Bribery for verification has been an unwritten norm in the police circles but Pallavi Pusham could not believe it till the passport applicant came to know about her 'criminal antecedents' only after being denied the document.

The Bangalore-based software engineer working with a multi-national company has also been declared a habitual offender.

Pallavi, 30, is originally from Raxaul in East Champaran district and had applied for her passport. Employed by a Japanese company, she is posted in Bangalore at present.

Her father, Anil Sinha, an associate professor at KCTC College, Raxaul, said she was denied the passport due to a wrong and false report submitted to the regional passport office in Patna by a police officer posted at Raxaul police station.

Sinha added that the verification report sent by assistant sub-inspector of police Benchu Ram said several criminal cases were pending against Pallavi and she was languishing in jail for the past five years. Besides, several 'warrants were also pending for execution against the applicant' and 'a court has imposed a ban on her visit outside the country' in the report have also gone against her. 'This could have been sufficient ground for cancellation of my daughter's passport application,' the hapless father told The Telegraph.

Sinha, a social activist fighting for the cause of Siriswa river for decades, alleged that Benchu had demanded bribe from his daughter over phone for sending a favourable report to the passport office. Pallavi, on being contacted over phone, confirmed the demand of bribe by the officer.

'How can a police officer do such an irresponsible job and ruin the career of a person like an engineer by sending a false and fabricated report?' said Pallavi's father. He added that he would take up the matter with senior police officers, seeking stern action against the assistant sub-inspector concerned.

Benchu, however, described it to be a case of human error. He denied the allegations that he had demanded bribe for sending the report.

East Champaran superintendent of Sunil Kumar said a probe would be conducted to ascertain the truth. Sunil also promised to do justice with the applicant. 'Justice will be done with the applicant after completing the necessary formalities,' he said, adding that disciplinary action would be initiated against the erring cop for his callousness.

This is not the first time when allegations of bribe have been levelled against the police for sending adverse verification report. Earlier, an officer posted with the Kotwali police station in Patna was suspended for demanding bribe from the wife of retired a high court judge for sending her police verification report to the passport office.

Sources said the rate of bribe has increased and the applicants have been cough up anything between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000 for sending such reports. 'The demand of bribe depends on the urgency of the passport,' an officer posted at a police station in Patna said on condition of anonymity.

He revealed earlier the cops used to demand anything between Rs 300 and Rs 1,000. 'But the rate increased after the deadline for sending the verification report was fixed by the government a couple of years ago,' the police officer said.

Additional reporting by Ramashankar from Patna