First Zero FIR registered in Telangana, as Warangal woman goes missing

Warangal: In what seen as a first in recent memory, a Zero FIR was registered under Warangal police commissionerate of Telangana on Saturday. Although, such a provision exists, it is never followed.

The uniqueness of the FIR is that an individual can register complaints at police stations even if the incident does not come under its jurisdiction.

This came in prominence during the Disha case when her family members approached a police station to lodge a complaint, but they were sent to another citing jurisdiction issues.

This action of police had drawn wide criticism.

Meanwhile, according to reports, B Ravinder from Shayampet of Warangal Rural district, discovered to his dismay that his daughter 24-year-old Srividya was missing since Sunday. After futile searches, he called his brother B Rajkumar over phone and informed about Srividya.

Rajkumar, who was at Subedari area, around that time, rushed to the nearest police station and lodged a missing complaint.

Sub-Inspector of Subedari Satyanarayana registered a woman missing case and it was later transferred to the police station under whose jurisdiction the residence of Ravinder falls.

What is Zero FIR?

In usual cases, an FIR is registered by a serial number in the police station which has the territorial jurisdiction to investigate a crime. A Zero FIR can be registered in the police station where the information about a cognizable offence is received, irrespective of whether it has got territorial jurisdiction or not. However, Zero FIRs can be registered within the state boundaries only. Also, Zero FIR can only be registered in a particular police station and not numbered. This FIR will be then forwarded to the concerned police station where it gets numbered and then proceeded for investigation.

The Justice Verma committee report recommends that every individual must also be able to register his complaint online on a designated website, apart from registering it physically through a police station. After this, a complaint number should be automatically generated so the complainant can track the FIR. It must be noted that FIR cannot be registered anonymously and the individual who has registered an FIR online will then have to go to any police station to verify his identity and the FIR.