Cellphone loot cases: Cops not lodging FIR

PATNA: CM Nitish Kumar on several occasions has directed state police headquarters to monitor crime figures at police station level. But Patna police have adopted a method to manipulate it by not registering an FIR in most of the cellphone snatching cases. Instead, they provide the victims a printed form with a fixed format of mobile phone ‘lost’ and ‘not snatched’ to fill up.

The matter surfaced when Umesh Kumar (36) reached the Gandhi Maidan police station on March 27 midnight to register an FIR after two unidentified bike-borne criminals snatched his cellphone on Exhibition Road. Kumar told TOI he was handed over a printed format by a police officer in which ‘subject’ was already mentioned as ‘Regarding misplacing of cellphone’.

“When I told him that my cellphone was snatched by criminals and an FIR must be lodged, he pressurised me to fill up the blank columns like name, father’s name, address, date of incident, cellphone model, network operator and IMEI number and handed me a copy of it, but did not lodge an FIR,” he said.

Kumar said he later sent his complaint through speed post for getting an FIR lodged. Kumar, an employee of a restaurant on Fraser Road, was returning to his rented accommodation at Pirmuhani when his cellphone was snatched. The criminals fled towards Pirmuhani.

“I ran up to Pirmuhani Mor and spotted a police patrol vehicle. I narrated everything following which they made me sit in their vehicle and chased the criminals, but failed to nab them,” he said.

“The patrolling party members told me they had spotted the suspects fleeing,” he said, adding they later advised him to visit Gandhi Maidan police station.

Kumar is not the lone case. Several such victims of cellphone snatching turn up before police everyday, but fail to get an FIR registered.

Another example is that of a media house employee whose cellphone was stolen while purchasing some items from roadside near Sai Temple under the Kankarbagh police station area on November 5 last. Even after he submitted a written complaint mentioning theft, no FIR was lodged.

DIG (central range) Rajesh Kumar said FIR should be lodged in such incidents after taking a written complaint or recording the victim’s statement. “There is no provision of providing printed forms to the victims. I will look into the issue,” he said. “In recent past, Kankarbagh and Jakkanpur police station SHOs were removed for similar acts,” he added.