How to make a Police report in

India FIR on-line in India . . .

First and foremost, when filing a report of any sort, check to ensure you are not dealing with a scam and giving out information that you should not. More on this at the bottom of this page.

What is a FIR?

FIR is a word commonly used, when it comes to filing a police report in India. When a police report is made the first time, this report is referred to as a first information report (FIR). Once a FIR is filed, it is considered a formal complaint and the police are required to investigate the matter in a legal manner. While the government authorities have occasionally stated that the police must file FIR when approached by people to do so and that everyone has a right to file an FIR if they have been a victim of a crime, stories of people having difficulty in filling a FIR are common in India. • Some of the reasons for having difficulty in filing FRI may be:Reluctance by police stations to show a higher crime rate for their region • Complaints against rich and powerful people where police may show hesitation to act • Expectation of money in the form of bribes The thought of going to a police station to try and register a complaint is often not very pleasant for middle class families. With online services now in full swing for conducting various transactions in India, the idea of allowing online filing of FIR would indeed be welcomed by many. In fact many people, specially NRIs, think the facility to file an FIR on line in India already exists. So here are some facts that you may find interesting when it comes to registering a police complaint (FIR) in India.

On-line facility to file FIR in India

Coming . . .coming . . .coming . . . . . .

News media in India gets used quite effectively to make loud announcements to the public, the reports are published and people assume that what has been stated is or perhaps will definitely be done, people in India do tend to believe news reports. Lets follow some of the promises by officials on allowing online filing of FIR. Here are a few excepts from major newspapers in India starting five years back, saying online filing of FIR had either already started or was coming soon. Posted: September 20, 2007 in Express India “From October 1, all FIRs in the state will be registered on computers. The software for the same has been developed by the National Crime Bureau,” said Sandeep Khirwar, SP, Panchkula. This will go a long way in not only maintaining proper records, but making the FIRs legible for others to read too. Indian Express Mar 25 2009, Besides general information, various kinds of new services that the police department would be starting from time to time, registration of FIR online, tenant and servant verification forms would also be made available online. India Today: December 29, 2009 According to home minister P. Chidambaram, "All complaints must be registered as FIRs and investigated. If a complaint is found to be false, the FIR should be ruthlessly canceled. But it must be made a point to register all complaints as FIRs promptly as this would increase the confidence of the public for the police. We are totally against non-registration of FIRs and I, in fact, even favour online complaints from the public to be registered as FIRs." Times of India Mar 21, 2012 Come 2013, an FIR can be filed at the click of a mouse. "Online registration of First Information Report will be possible" once server and network is established by the year end or early next year, home minister P Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

State Governments that allow online filing of

grievances

Haryana government allows filing of grievances of various sorts against government departments on-line. Here is the link to their grievance filing page from where you can file a grievance and also check the status of your complaint. The page link is: http://www.harsamadhan.gov.in/citizen/grievance.php?TabID=L Jalandhar police has a online crime tip page, where people can inform the police about a crime anonymously if they prefer. They fill in the crime report on an online form and submit it. To visit their website click HERE Maharashtra e-complaint system announced with great fan fare a few years back, This is not exactly an FIR! ‘In reality this is for reporting minor crimes and the police website states: Here is what the Mumbai police site says abut the e- complaint: As per the prevailing laws, FIR of a major crime ('cognizable crimes' like theft, burglary, motor vehicle theft, accident, chain- snatching, assault, rape, murder, attempt to commit murder, robbery, dacoity, extortion etc) can only be registered at a Police Station. Please contact your nearest Police Station for the same. 'This site shall only entertain complains about minor crimes ('non-cognizable crimes'). Your complain shall be referred to the concerned Police Station, where you may be called for further clarification and/or to give statement.'

Some on-line report websites may be a scam!

In case you find a site that encourages you to file a complaint online, be alert and before filling any information, check to ensure that you are indeed providing information to a genuine government website. There may be sites that are not what they appear to be. Such websites normally ask people to first register to use the site and then ask for quite a bit of personal information that you should not be giving out. People are mislead into thinking that they are filling a report but the scam is to easily get your personal information.

How to check if you are indeed dealing with a

government website?

Normally most website addresses end with dot com such as xyz.com. For government of India websites they end with .gov.in Information about who the owner/registrant of a website is also available free of charge on the Internet by simply visiting the whois page and typing in the name of the website, you wish to check ownership of. To check domains that end with dot in (.in) visit http://www.registry.in/WHOIS%20Search.