Welcome FIR Move

Though things have started to happen quite late in the day and only as a sequel to countless tragedies so far as Home affairs are concerned, yet the fact that there has been a beginning in the right direction is itself a reason to cheer in this country of aberrations. Only the other day did Union Home Minister P Chidambaram float the idea of an all-encompassing National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) to take on the scourge of terrorism in sync with its dangerously evolving nature. This column has already welcomed the pragmatic move. And now there is this refreshing piece of news that the Union Home Ministry will issue a circular, likely to be sent out next week, asking all States and Union Territories to ensure that all complaints received at police stations are treated as first information reports (FIRs). It is another matter that law and order is a State subject, and therefore, it will be up to the States to pay heed to the circular. But State governments that have a holistic view of things and are determined to do away with the colonial police regime in vogue, will probably make it mandatory for all complaints received at police stations to be registered as FIRs.

What has prompted the UPA government to decide so? Had it not been for the Ruchika Girhotra case and the sustained campaign launched by the media against the award of a mere six-month sentence to former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore convicted of molesting Ruchika (then a budding 14-year-old tennis player) 19 years ago that three years down the line forced her to commit suicide due to the endless torture inflicted on her family by the goons deployed by Rathore in his capacity as a top police shot, the government would not have moved so fast. In the Ruchika Girhotra case the police had refused to register an FIR against a senior police officer — Rathore was then IGP — and was rather party to the hounding of the helpless and hapless girl. The pervert in Rathore eventually succeeded in destroying her whole family; her brother was framed in false cases; and the family was forced to shift to Shimla. Had the police registered an FIR against Rathore without regard to his status and followed the due process of investigation informed sheerly by the oath taken to commit oneself to the uniform, Ruchika would not be driven to the point of suicide. The Ruchika Girhotra tragedy apart, most police stations would also refuse to register FIRs to show a lower crime profile in their area of jurisdiction so as to prove their ‘policing efficacy’ or to shield powerful lawbreakers — some of our influential lawmakers are excellent lawbreakers too who a subservient police would merrily overlook, thanks to the power the so-called lawmaker wields.

Some in the police would argue that some complaints could well be frivolous or motivated and registering them as FIRs would be a waste of energy and resources. The question, however, is whether it should also be not in the mandate of the police to find out if a complaint is genuine or frivolous or motivated. This is indeed a very small risk and task in view of shameful episodes like Ruchika’s and the police’s zeal to protect lawbreakers in its own fraternity as well as in the influential political-criminal class. Given the mentality of the police force at the police station level that militates against the spirit of democracy and instils fear in the mind of the commoner, a mandatory complaint-as-FIR regime could prove to be a great succour to the lesser mortals — at least to begin with in any case. Is there any harm in making a good beginning? THE SENTINEL