'I paid...': Bengaluru ex-CFO’s daughter dies at 34, then he says ‘bribes were demanded at every step’

A deeply moving social media post by a retired Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) officer from Bengaluru has stirred widespread outrage after he described how he was forced to pay bribes at nearly every step while dealing with the death of his only child.

K Sivakumar, who identified himself as the former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of BPCL, shared a post on LinkedIn recounting the trauma and corruption he encountered after his 34-year-old daughter Akshaya passed away.

Akshaya, who had spent eight years at Goldman Sachs and held degrees in B.Tech (Computer Science) and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, died at home on September 18, 2025, due to a brain haemorrhage.

In his post, now deleted, Sivakumar wrote that he was asked for bribes by nearly everyone involved — from the ambulance staff and police to the crematorium and municipal officials.

“Recently, my only child passed away at age 34. The amount of open bribe being asked by ambulance, police for FIR and post-mortem report, crematorium for receipts, and BBMP office for death certificate,” he wrote.

He revealed that police officers openly demanded cash for providing the FIR and post-mortem report, forcing him to pay money inside the station.

“There was no empathy for a father who had just lost his only child. I had money, so I paid. What will the poor do?” he added.

The retired officer said the ambulance driver demanded Rs 3,000 to take his daughter’s body from Kasavanahalli to St. John’s Hospital in Koramangala. He also described how even basic formalities at the BBMP office became a nightmare — he had to visit the office for five days to obtain a death certificate, only to be told repeatedly that staff were unavailable because of a “caste survey.” The certificate was finally issued after he contacted a senior official — but only after paying more than the official fee.

Sivakumar’s post ended with a heartfelt appeal: “Can Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, Mazumdar -people with billions -save this city?”

After his post went viral and triggered a wave of public anger, the Whitefield Police in Bengaluru took immediate action. Authorities suspended one Police Sub-Inspector and one Constable from the Bellandur Police Station, saying such misconduct would not be tolerated.

Meanwhile, BJP state vice president Malavika Avinash expressed condolences to Sivakumar and criticised the Congress-led Karnataka government, calling the system “defunct.”