Arrested man claims police falsified FIR

The Hoshiarpur police's Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) staff has been caught on camera arresting a local financier from his shop for allegedly indulging in liquor trade. Nothing unusual, you might say. However, an FIR has been registered at the city police station under the NDPS Act and the police claim to have arrested the man from Bahadurpur Chowk with a plastic bag full of narcotics.

This illegal practice of the local police, of falsifying information in the FIR, has turned into a habit, sources say with such cases of people being booked under NDPS Act increasing in number.

In this case too, perhaps no one, except the victim and his family would have known what actually happenned. The cops had no idea that CCTV cameras were at work when they came to arrest Ravinder Singh, alias Shoki, from his shop in Bahadurpur.

The outside camera footage shows that two policement in plain clothes arrived on a motorcycle and immediately took Shoki in custody from outside his shop. Footage from the camera inside the victim's shop showed three cops searching the drawers and counting currency notes.

The FIR, however, states that a CIA police party was on routine patrolling, when it received information that if a raid was conducted immediately, Shoki could be caught red handed with narcotics. It goes on add that Shoki was finally caught with 515 grams of smack.

The FIR also said that before searching the packet, the raiding team tried to involve a member of the public as witness, but no one agreed.

The accused is in judicial custody and has filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana high court under Section 482 of CrPC for quashing of the case.
CIA in-charge Sulakhan Singh has maintained that the FIR was correct. He claimed that several cases, including one under the NDPS Act, were pending against the accused.

First Published: May 27, 2013 18:57 IST