We owned a Nokia phone and our service provider is BSNL. Last Thursday, I ended up loosing it at the railway station. I discovered the loss within a few minutes, but it was just gone. Someone had taken it, removed the SIM and the mobile was unreachable. My dad managed to borrow someone's cell and we called home to inform mom about this incident. She promptly called our service provider (BSNL) and got the SIM deactivated. The SIM was issued by BSNL and we really liked their service. They are honest, and upfront with all their costs and don't try to rip off their customers.
After we returned from our journey, we decided to call up BSNL, once more, to figure out how to get a replacement SIM card. I called up their customer service and talked to him and he asked me to bring proof of address, id, and of course an "FIR". What is an FIR? FIR stands for "First information Report". The customer service representative explained to us that,we had to go to the Police Station, bother a few cops to write an "FIR", pay them a little moolah (he did not say we had to pay a bribe - but I figured this is the standard operating procedure here) and then go to BSNL to get a new SIM card.
So, naturally I asked the cust. service rep: what the purpose of an FIR was? He gladly replied that it was a "proof" that I had lost the cell phone!
Oh Boy! How is it a proof? I retorted! He says filing an FIR proved that I had lost the cell phone.
Oh Really? How so?
FIR doesn't prove anything. FIR does nothing when it comes to lost cellphones, lost slippers, lost pens & pencils or even lost DL, lost Credit Cards, lost Debit Cards etc. For example: If I make a statement that there is no life on Mars, the only way to prove it is to send someone up there and investigate it thoroughly and let him file a report on his findings. Issuing an FIR doesn't do much in the way of "proving" anything. There is no value the police station is adding. In fact its a dreaded waste of public resources, your tax rupees, because I would rather have the cop chase down a rapist, a thug or a murderer. Even arming myself with an FIR doesn't do much in favor of getting my mobile back either.
There are reasons when an FIR is necessary. One is,when someone wants to file a serious complaint or an allegation against another person or another organization. Or to build a history of violations by an auto rickshaw driver who charges more. Surprisingly, no one files FIRs in these issues. For ex: FIRs could be helpful in cases of drunken driving, auto drivers charging higher fares where the issue or a person could be tracked and a pattern recorded to eventually prove irrefutable evidence that a person has in fact been reported several times by several people! That is the real purpose of an organized system that can track these FIRs down based on a PAN card number or Social Security Number etc.
A lost mobile phone is not worthy of a trip to the police station.
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2 comments:
Guess what happened at the Police Station? We were told by the cops that they get 1000s of these requests and that it is just a waste of time!
Then they gave us a slip on which he wrote the telephone number of the mobile, date and time when it was lost and signed it.
He did not even bother to keep a copy of it!
1. You were lucky to have gotten a "stolen mobile" FIR to be accepted. Recently they have an unwritten rule not to accept these (like they have an unwritten rule not to give credit cards and loans to lawyers).
2. You have got an FIR all wrong. Even in serious cases like murder, rape, robbery, the FIR is of no evidentiary value - the Indian Evidence Act and the Indian Penal Code specifically provide that the contents of an FIR cannot be used as evidence in a case. Any person (including the informant at whose instigation the FIR was lodged at the police station) can go back on it in court - there goes your Miranda Law for a toss as far as FIR's are concerned.
3. The purpose of FIR's is merely to start the process of law. To set the enforcement machinery rolling. It has no other value. The reason an FIR is requested for by mobile insurance companies or SIM providers is to prevent abuse of the "free" replacement of cell phones (which has been again discontinued under an unwritten law by insurance companies) or of SIM card in cases where there was no actual theft of the same.
4. NO ONE CHARGES/ASKS FOR MOOLAH TO LODGE AN FIR IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. I know the prevalent corruption in India, but this still doesnt happen ok? At least not yet......
5. That FIR was not for your benefit - agreed - but it was in general interest of the tax payer, the honest man. Give the state some credit for a few things that it still does in the right manner :D
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