Several residents have complained that the HSR Layout police are refusing to register complaints of mobile snatching as a First Information Report (FIR). However, the other day when a senior cop’s phone was snatched away by miscreants on a bike, the cops not only registered his complaint but also arrested habitual offenders to check if any of them had stolen the top cop’s phone. After all, it was a prestige issue for the department now.
On December 20 at around 8.45pm, IPS officer Sanjay Sahay (55 years) was taking a stroll on 17th Cross in Sector 4 when two bike-borne thieves snatched his mobile and fled before he could do anything. The Additional Director General of Police, Police Computer Wing, filed a complaint and the FIR was promptly accepted by the HSR cops on December 21. The top cop lost his OnePlus 6 phone costing around Rs 40,000.
BE MORE RESIDENT-FRIENDLY, PLEASE!
If the rules are applied to everyone, we would have a more robust way of tackling cases, whether it’s due to the victim’s negligence (keeping the door open; wearing a necklace or talking on phone while on the road) or an actual case of theft or robbery.
We have also come across cases where many cybercrime cases are also refused by the HSR police station for the same reason. “The cops say that they lack expertise and cannot do much about recovery,” said one resident whose laptop and phones were robbed from her house when her door was open. “They give their own reasons for not filing an FIR like they are understaffed and have more crucial jobs to do like investigating murders, dacaoities, and so on.”
Another theft occurred in a shop in Sector 1. “The thieves had cut the grill and come through the ventilator window,” said the shopkeeper. “They stole Rs 1,500 cash and the CCTV receiver costing about Rs 7,500. Since the amount was less, the cops convinced me that I should not file an FIR.”
It’s true that the cops are under-staffed. And that has been the case for the last several decades. Now that it has become the norm, that is no excuse either. But what do the cops do now for chain snatching, mobile snatching and even petty theft cases? They just give an acknowledgement and never pursue the case, allege residents. With an FIR, the cops have to open the case as it has to go to court, if only to close it later. But that will reflect badly in the overall statistics. Therefore, this is the police’s way of skewing the statistics. This is not just with HSR but across the city and country. That’s why we should always assume that all the crime statistics revealed by the cops are under-reported, particularly the petty crimes.