City cops placate public with ‘parallel FIRs’

Chennai

Highly placed sources told DTNext that about 60 per cent of the FIRs registered by the Greater Chennai Police are those which will never be reflected in any records of the department. The city police have been cheating not only the public, but also the government, by not furnishing the exact figures to the State Crime Records Bureau, the source of data for the government. 

So, the Chennai city crime rate found in both State Crime Records Bureau and also in the National Crime Records Bureau are just 40 per cent of the actual number of crimes that are reported in the city.

DTNext is in possession of one such ‘parallel’ FIR registered by the unit II of Central Crime Branch. When a status check was done on the said FIR, the Tamil Nadu Police website showed that such a document does not exist. 

Highly placed sources said that in every police station under the Greater Chennai police Commissionerate, there would be a ‘non-DSR (daily status report) registry’ to maintain the records of these ‘parallel FIRs’. “The details of such unregistered FIRs are only conveyed orally from a station inspector to the assistant commissioner, then to the deputy commissioner and the city police commissioner. 

These cases are never reviewed in the weekly crime meetings,” a senior police official said. “It is like deceiving the complainant by providing with a copy of an FIR to stop them from approaching a court of law to get their grievances redressed,” he added. 

“Non-registering of cases is nothing new. But, when police refuse to register an FIR, there is always a chance for the complainants to approach the courts so that they can get a court direction to the police to register an FIR. But, when a ‘non-DSR’ FIR is given, the complainant is under the impression that a case has been registered and investigation is going on,” another official said. 

Police act on ‘non-DSR’ FIRs only when the affected party moves a court. “Some complainants move the court when the police fails to act on the ‘FIR’ registered. So when there is a court direction to investigate, police conduct kangaroo courts and settle the matter, that too without it reflecting on any official record,” the official added. 

“Earlier we used to fight for years to get the police register an FIR in some cases. We have also come across several cases where police do not conduct investigation at all, even after registering an FIR. 

Still, we did not know that police have been resorting to such a fraudulent practice. This is plain cheating and a blatant human rights violation,” V Suresh, general secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties said. 

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