Poll Analysis | No Money, No FIR
A First Information Report (FIR) is a written document prepared by police when they receive complaints from a victim or by someone on his/her behalf. It is the right of a complainant to immediately get a copy of an FIR that is free-of-cost from concerned police station, stated in official website of Indian police.
However, reports on our website present the other side of
the story. The police officers take advantage of miserable condition of a complainant by snatching money from them for registering an FIR.
A respondent from Mumbai had to pay a bribe of Rs.2,000 for registering an FIR. The person applied to obtain the duplicate copy of his original Share Certificate and he needed the copy of his reported FIR. But the police refused to file his FIR until the respondent paid the demanded amount as bribe.
A Pune-based respondent wiring to us submitted an interesting incident, which shows law enforcing agencies digressing from their duties. In a car accident, the respondent along with his friends wanted to log an FIR but the police declined to do so. After repeated request, the police demanded Rs.3,000 to close the case. However, after accepting a bribe of Rs.1,500, the police officer still did not give them FIR.
To know readers’ experiences, we asked a question, “Have you paid a bribe to a police officer for registering an FIR?” The result shows that 34 per cent of voters have paid a bribe to register an FIR. Among the voters, 15 per cent of the people knew someone that had paid a bribe for the same reason and another 19 per cent that did not have to pay a bribe.
Surprisingly, 31 per cent of the bribe-fighters did not pay a bribe, despite pressure from police.