Legal Procedure for Filing an Official Police Complaint in India

Most of the tourists visiting India are not aware of the basic procedure for filing an official police complaint in India if anything adverse happens to them. As there are lots of misconceptions amongst the people of India about the police department, I have decided to write some tips that will be very useful to all the tourists, mainly the tourists from abroad. I myself have also faced some problems while registering a complaint to the police about the robbery of my luggage during my last visit to India in spite of my stay in India for 40 years.

The entire country of India is divided in to thousands of police stations with the limits of each, clearly specified. If it is a small village, there will be only one police station. Even, there may be a case when multiple villages are covered under the jurisdiction of one police station. The small towns, which are known as taluka head quarters have two police stations. The district head quarter can have around 12 to 15 police stations based on the population of each area. The Police Inspector is the head of every police station. There are various Sub Inspectors/officers/police constables under him. There are three to four writers also attached with each police station. The district head of the police is called Deputy Superintendent of Police, shortly known as D.S.P. The head of the entire State is called Inspector General of Police. The State government controls the administration of police department. Though, there can be some guidelines issued by the Central Government from time to time. If you experience anything like robbery, pick pocket, house robbery, rape, physical abuse or attack, kidnap, harassment by people, missing person, or any type of mishap caused by the persons, you are allowed to register its official complaint. However, if you have to register the complaint about a missing person, you need to wait for at least 24 hours of the person's disappearance. This registration of complaint is called filing of First Information Report, shortly known as FIR.