Question: I had filed a complaint with police station, following which an FIR was registered by police. However, after 3 months, now somebody told me that the police has closed the investigation in this FIR without even informing me, i.e., the complainant. The police is refusing to divulge information about status of investigation in the FIR. What should I do?
Answer: On completion of the investigation in an FIR, police is required to submit a report to the Magistrate under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.). This report can be in the form of either a charge sheet or a closure report.
If the police has filed a closure report in the case, the court is required to intimate you about such closure report. If you are not convinced with the closure of the investigation by the police, on such intimation, you can file a protest petition with the court. After considering your protest petition, the court has the power to direct (1) further investigation by police, or (2) accept the closure report and close the case, or (3) reject the closure report filed by police and take cognizance of the offence, or (4) treat your protest petition as a private complaint and take cognizance of the same.
Therefore, if the police has closed the investigation in your FIR, they would be filing a closure report before the Magistrate. Thereafter, the Magistrate will intimate about such closure, on the basis of which you’ll be entitled to file your protest petition with the Magistrate.
So, you may wait for such closure report being filed by the police before the Magistrate.
Meanwhile, if you are not sure about the closure of the investigation, you may try contacting police for the result of the investigation. If needed, you may also try filing an RTI application.
