Missing passports and matters of jurisdiction

City police refuse to register a resident's complaint of missing passport

Seek a friend’s help with finding something you lost and you are invariably asked, ‘Where did you lose it?’

A city resident recently faced the same question from the police when he tried to file a complaint regarding his missing passport. The police’s question was one that led to a lot of confusion about jurisdiction.

The complainant had made a trip outside the State with the document and told the police he was unsure whether he lost it then or somewhere close to his house. The police refused to record the complaint saying it could be registered only at a police station near where the person had lost it. What got the complainant in a bind was the fact that he could not get a duplicate passport unless the police recorded the plaint.

“The police have to be very cautious about missing passport cases because there are too many cases of passport fraud. It is a very serious offence and we have to follow strict procedure,” said a police officer. While the police were following the rules when they insisted that the complainant figure out where he lost it and file a complaint at the concerned station, the poor citizen was in a fix.

The police had only one advice for the public. “Keep your passport safe and do not lose important documents.”

Hold on to your gold

A spate of chain-snatching cases has come to light in the city and surroundings recently. A woman from Vypeen lost a gold chain weighing about five sovereigns to a chain-snatcher here the other day. Police also arrested four chain-snatchers from different parts of the city here last week. As many as nine cases of snatching were reported in the city this year.

All of these cases take place in broad daylight and the victims most often are women walking on their own. A motorcycle slows down beside them and the biker snatches the gold chain before making a quick getaway. Police said the incidents most often took place along roads just outside the city as the criminals could escape quickly on less crowded roads.

“What makes chain snatchers very difficult to catch is the fact that most people are too shocked to record the vehicle number, clothing, or other identifying features of the chain snatcher,” said a police officer. Police said in many cases, the snatchers were young people trying to make a quick buck to support their spending habit.