Pay cops for FIR

If you want to lodge a first information report (FIR) with the police here, be prepared to shell out a fat bribe. Or so say dozens of complaints received by the Chhattisgarh home minister.

If you want to lodge a first information report (FIR) with the police here, be prepared to shell out a fat bribe. Or so say dozens of complaints received by the Chhattisgarh home minister.

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Ramvichar Netam has got dozens of complaints and he has asked Raipur Senior Superintendent of Police Ashok Juneja to look into the matter and crack the whip on "cash-loving cops", according to official sources.

According to the complaints, policemen routinely ask for bribes to file an FIR. Unless an FIR is registered, a crime case cannot be followed up.

"It's very common in Raipur that police personnel seek cash for FIRs, mainly from poor people," a district official admitted.

"But the matter was reported only in the past week to the home minister when the policemen demanded cash from some BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) supporters at the Civil Lines police station," the official added.