The Shopkeeper's Written Complaint
A constable is at the reporting desk of a police station in Muzaffarpur when a shopkeeper, Ramesh Prasad, hands over a written complaint in Hindi. It reads: 'सेवा में, थानाध्यक्ष महोदय। मैं रामपुर गाँव का निवासी हूँ। कल रात लगभग ग्यारह बजे मेरे दुकान का ताला टूटा हुआ मिला और गल्ले से पाँच हज़ार रुपये गायब थे। मैंने तुरंत थाना में सूचना दिया। मेरे पड़ोसी ने बताया कि उन्होंने दो लड़के को भागते देखा। मैं चाहता हूँ कि जल्द से जल्द कार्रवाई होनी चाहिए।' The theft is a cognizable offence. The complainant is willing to sign whatever the constable writes. The station diary entry must be made within the hour, and the investigating officer will later need the exact date, time and place.
1. Identify the grammatical errors in the complaint, correct them, and explain the rule behind each correction.
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- 'मेरे दुकान' → 'मेरी दुकान'. दुकान is a feminine noun, so the possessive must agree: मेरी, not मेरे. The same gender agreement applies in 'मेरी दुकान का ताला'.
- 'थाना में' → 'थाने में'. Before the postposition में, a masculine noun ending in -आ takes the oblique form: थाना → थाने.
- 'सूचना दिया' → 'सूचना दी'. सूचना is feminine, so the verb must be दी; दिया is masculine.
- 'दो लड़के को' → 'दो लड़कों को'. With the postposition को and a plural count, the noun takes the oblique plural: लड़के → लड़कों.
- 'मैं चाहता हूँ कि ... कार्रवाई होनी चाहिए' → 'मैं चाहता हूँ कि ... कार्रवाई हो'. Two modals (चाहता हूँ and चाहिए) in one sentence are redundant; the subordinate clause takes the subjunctive हो. Corrected paragraph: 'मैं रामपुर गाँव का निवासी हूँ। कल रात लगभग ग्यारह बजे मेरी दुकान का ताला टूटा हुआ मिला और गल्ले से पाँच हज़ार रुपये गायब थे। मैंने तुरंत थाने में सूचना दी। मेरे पड़ोसी ने बताया कि उन्होंने दो लड़कों को भागते देखा। मैं चाहता हूँ कि जल्द से जल्द कार्रवाई हो।'
2. Draft the substance as it should appear in the station diary, in the third person, keeping only facts.
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'दिनांक 12.08.2025 को 10:15 बजे रमेश प्रसाद, पुत्र श्री ..., निवासी ग्राम रामपुर, थाना ..., ने थाने में लिखित सूचना दी कि दिनांक 11.08.2025 की रात लगभग 23:00 बजे उनकी दुकान का ताला टूटा हुआ मिला तथा गल्ले से ₹5,000 गायब थे। सूचना देने वाले के पड़ोसी श्री ... ने बताया कि उन्होंने दो अज्ञात व्यक्तियों को भागते देखा।'
Three changes are deliberate. First, 'कल रात' becomes a date and a clock time, because a diary entry is read months later and 'कल' is meaningless then. Second, first person becomes third person, because the diary records what the informant stated, not what the constable feels. Third, 'दो लड़के' becomes 'दो अज्ञात व्यक्ति' with the witness named, because a vague age label is not an identification and the neighbour is a real witness whose name the IO will need. The complainant's request for quick action is not evidence and can be dropped from the substance.
3. What must be done before the complainant signs, and why does the wording of a cognizable report matter later?
Read the worked answer
The substance must be entered in the prescribed book, read over to the informant, and signed by him; he must then be given a copy free of cost, and the constable should note in the diary the time it was read over and the fact that a copy was given. Under Section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which replaced Section 154 CrPC, information about a cognizable offence is recorded in this way, and the informant has a right to a free copy. If the informant cannot read, it must be read over and his thumb impression taken in the presence of a witness. Refusing to register on the ground that the dispute is 'civil' or 'petty' is exactly the failure that later becomes a complaint to the SP or the Magistrate.
Wording matters because this is the first document in the chain of evidence: the date and time fix the period of the offence, the description fixes what the IO must look for, and any fact inserted by the constable that the complainant did not state can be used to discredit the whole investigation. A constable's job at the desk is to record accurately, not to improve the story.