Cops attitude to not lodge FIR could spoil Yogi government's reputation: UP Home Secy

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh’s home secretary Arvind Kumar has invoked the BJP’s poll promise to direct director general of police Sulkhan Singh and all district police chiefs to lodge first information reports without any bias for religion or caste and in a “fearless atmosphere”, saying an attitude of not lodging FIRs could become a blot on the Yogi Adityanath government.

In a missive on Monday, Kumar said such a promise was an important point in the “present government’s Lok Kalyan Sankalp-2017” and also a commitment to the public.

The BJP had slammed the former Akhilesh Yadav government for not lodging FIRs against the minority community.

“The government has taken seriously the issue of FIRs not being lodged or being lodged after much delay or the probe not being completed on time. Complaints have been received that victims have to make several rounds of police stations and senior officers but still FIRs are not lodged and they have to approach courts. Due to such attitude, people lose confidence in law and order set-up and reputation of the government suffers a blot,” the letter said.

Kumar warned of strict action if FIRs are not lodged by any official, asking senior superintendents of police to open ‘FIR registration counters’.

The home secretary also said that the e-FIR system put in place during the tenure of the previous government be popularised further for public convenience. In December 2016, UP had put a first-of-its-kind system in place to open an e-police station whereby any person in the state could lodge a complaint online in cases of non-heinous crime and those against unidentified accused, in cases of thefts and robberies for instance.

E-FIRs were to be lodged under this system and digitally signed copies of the FIRs were to be sent to the complainant online. Such a complaint can also be submitted through WhatsApp under this system provided the complainants furnish their Aadhaar number. “The E-Police station system needs to be popularised further,” the home secretary said in the letter.