- साहसी नागरिक
- 13 years ago
- 583 दर्शनों की संख्या
FIR to report loss of *******
I was searching for my passport a few weeks back (in June 2011) and realised that it was missing. After a thorough search of my house, office and the nearby photocopy shop where i remember taking it last for taking a copy in Jan 2011, the realisation that i had lost my passport struck me. And the very thought of having to go to a police station to file a complain was giving me jitters. And the more i read about the process on various blogs the more disturbed i became. Firstly, the whole police station thing did not give me a good feeling, now over and above this, the fact that i did not know Kannada was for sure a kick on my face. Anyway, there was no other option but to visit the police station. I started off with googling for the police station which under whose jurisdiction my apartment would fall. Figuring that it was covered by the Kadugodi Police Station, I decided to drive down. I took along with me a written and another printed copy of the complaint describing all possible details about the mishap including and not limited to; my passport number, the last time i had seen it, where had i taken it last, where could i have possibly lost it etc etc. Along with that i attached a copy of my lost passport, which fortunately i had maintained. So i reached the police station and first spoke to the constable sitting at the entrance. I explained him the scenario and then he wanted to know, where exactly i have lost it and on which date. Now obviously i didnt have an exact answer for this and infomrmed him of the same. Then he informed me that the ASI/SI had gone for a day long meeting and asked me to come back the next day. He however agreed to keep the complaint letter with him. So i went back the next day and was fortunate to ********** the officer who I believe was the ASI. This was a young man and looked like a fairly new recruit into the rank. Surprisingly enough he gave me a nice smile and asked me to come inside his room. I went in and took a seat. Meanwhile the constable handed him the copy of the compaint that I had submitted the previous day. He wanted me to narrate the story, which i gladly did. Fortunately for me he was able to communicate in fairly good English. Once again, he also wanted to know where exactly and when i had lost the passport and once again i told him all that I knew. Now here is where he comes out with the bouncer. He told me that the Sub Inspector/Circle Inspector has told them not to take complaints for missing passports. Reason being, passport is an important document and people are misusing that. Now that kind of ticked me off and i am sure he could see that on my face. My only response to his reasoning was "thats precisely why i need to file a complaint" and also told him that not filling a complaint was against the law and i was obliged to file a complaint at the nearest police station as per the guidance from the ministry of external affairs. So now, he tells me that he needs a copy of the passport, which i told him was already attached to the complaint copy that he was holding. He looked thru and informed me that he needed an affidavit signed by a notary stating how and where i had lost the passport. On asking where i could get this, he informed that i could get this done near KR Puram. I was ok with that, if that was the process and told him that i would come back with an affidavit later in the day. Meanwhile the constable who also was standing nearby was trying to convince the ASI to ask me to go to the Mahadevapura police station under whose jurusidiction the photocopy shop (which was one of the places i had mentioned in my complaint as the places where i had visited on the day that i had lost the passpost) came under. However, i showed a little bit of frustration and requested both of them not to make me run between two police stations. The ASI seemed to understand this and asked me to come back with the affidavit and assured me that he would take care of it. Getting the affidavit was a fairly simple process. I had to get a blank stamp paper, which I managed to find near the KR Puram registars office.Then i took that to a DTP guy nearby. He had a lot of affidavit formats already saved on his PC and he just copied and pasted one of them and made changes based on my need and then printed it on the stamp paper. Then i had to find a notary who could sign it, which again was simple enough. Now with the affidavit in hand, I rushed back to the police station. Unfortunatley for me the ASI had already left the station and the constable asked me to leave the affidavit with him and come back the next day. I made another trip to the police station the very next day and they handed over a Complaint Acknowledgement Document. I informed them that the passport website clearly asks for a FIR, and that is not what they are providing me. On this the constable told me that this is what they provide for lost passports and told me that the passport office would accept that. Though not convinced with this response, i went back and filed for a new passport. Unfortunately, since i had lost my earlier passport, i was not allowed to apply for a new passport on the Tatkal scheme and had to go for the regular scheme. I went to the Passport ********** Kendra (PSK) and applied for the passport on 4th July 2011. That process was fairly simple, however, though i was told that i would be getting the passport in 30 days, it was more than 5 months later that i finally got it in my hand. In the entire process the only place i had to pay anything apart from the regulated government fees was for the passport verification, where, i was told by the policeman that i had to pay a "verification" fee and "writers" fee. Basically a small bribe to make sure that the passport verification was completed without any further delay. He didnt qoute a specific amount, but i paid Rs.300/- for this purpose and got out of there. I recieved my passport within 2 weeks of having completed the verification (paid that money), so i guess that was good enough amount for them. So in short, though i had to make a few trips to the police station and ended up paying Rs.300/-, i still feel that i got a raw deal. I had expected a spend of Rs.1500 - Rs.2000 for this whole ordeal. And the bigger point to be noted is that, throughout this entire episode, i never felt that they were making me run around in order to get me to pay. Nobody asked me for any bribe directly or directly and hence i never paid anything. Ofcourse i am willing to neglect the "police verification" fee, which is now more or less taken for granted and considered to be a fair thing to pay. Ofcourse, if they hadnt asked for that as well, i would have probably sent this article to the news papers as well :)