Soon, log on to file police plaint….Debasish Panigrahi
Soon, the Mumbai police will be quite literally at your service 24×7 and that too just a click away. The revamped police website, www.mumbaipolice.org, will be launched soon and will include many interactive features, including an option to register an online complaint.
BG Shekhar, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), enforcement, who has been given the task of citizen empowerment, said the official website of the Mumbai police will be re-launched in a week’s time. “The police site will become more interactive,” Shekhar said.
Elaborating on the provision of registering an online complaint, Shekhar, who is also credited with designing the official website of the state highway police (where he was earlier posted as a superintendent of police), said that once the complaint is received at the centralised web centre at the Crawford Market police HQ, the (mail) address of the sender would be verified in order to ascertain its authenticity, following which the complaint would be forwarded to the respective police stations for follow-up. “The mailer would then be intimated about the status of his complaint by informing him/her about the police station it has been forwarded to,” Shekhar added.
At the police station level, the senior officer will initiate an inquiry into the matter.
“If there is a need to lodge a First Information Report, the complainant would be called to the police station for registering the same according to the provisions of the Indian Evidence Act,” he said. However, in case the complainant wants to divulge some confidential information, his identity, including his mail address, would be kept a secret. “A discreet inquiry would be launched and police station of that particular locality will be directed to address the situation,” Shekhar added.
Apart from the interactive aspect, the re-designed website would also have information about criminals and crime records. “Like, we are making the page containing information about ‘wanted’ criminals more detailed and exhaustive. It would enlist the information about all wanted offenders, including their crime dossiers. The page would be updated constantly,” he added.
The site will also dedicate a page for the events on police-public relations. The expanded function of the re-worked website, done by Shekhar and three software experts, would entail engaging more operative hands. Shekhar said some more officers and constables are being taken in the web development department.