AN SHO has powers, under the Criminal Procedure Code read with Police Rules, to refuse registration of an FIR if it contains allegations contrary to or in contradiction of facts and circumstances of a matter already in his notice.

As an example, suppose a man has murdered his wife, and the police have collected evidence of it. The husband, in order to hoodwink the SHO, brings forth a story that robbers killed his wife.

The SHO can refuse to register this version as a separate FIR. But he is bound by Police Rule 24(4) to register the husband’s version in the Daily Diary Register (Roznamcha) as soon as it is presented before him.

The Roznamcha is a running register and the SHO cannot tamper with the timing of the receipt of this new version. He is legally bound to follow the procedure which is to incorporate his detailed reasons in the Roznamcha, below the entry of the new version, for not registering it as an FIR.

He then has to make a copy of this and send it to the area magistrate for review and final decision.

The area magistrate, in his turn, can order the registration of the FIR or accept the SHO’s opinion.

The counter versions of a matter have to be formally entertained and incorporated in the official record without delay.

In my considered opinion, the SHO of Model Town is bound to register the FIR on Dr Qadri’s version of events, especially because as a sessions judge, who is superior to an area magistrate , has already considered the conflicting contentions and rejected the SHO’s arguments. In any case, he cannot keep away Dr Qadri’s version from the Roznamcha and has to seek the area magistrate’s orders.

This takes me to an event in my early career. When the FIR against the late Z.A. Bhutto was being registered in the Nawab Mohammad Ahmed Khan case, I was present in the room as an insignificant junior ASP when a senior police officer, ignoring my presence there, was discussing the matter on the telephone with Saeed Ahmed Khan, another retired senior officer, then appointed as an adviser to the prime minister.

He convinced the latter to let the FIR be recorded against Mr Bhutto by saying: “Sir, don’t worry. After all, we are going to investigate the FIR and not Ahmed Reza Qasuri.”

Then, as soon as he dropped the phone, he winked naughtily at another senior officer present there and whispered: “Hum ne to usse thok diya (I have put Bhutto in the dock).”

Rafi Pervaiz Bhatti
Lahore

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2014