THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All First Information Reports (FIRs) registered by the state police will be published on the Kerala police website, www.keralapolice.gov.in, within 24 hours of registration from November 15. However, exemptions have been given to FIRs pertaining to a set of sensitive cases. The decision was taken in view of a Supreme Court order in this regard September. According to a directive issued by DGP Loknath Behera to all cops, except cases pertaining to child abuse, sexual offences, terrorism and insurgency, all FIRs should be published on the website within 24 hours.
“We have provided Internet connectivity to all police stations for the purpose and technical arrangements to upload the FIR has been also made," said the state police chief. In case of any technical or practical difficulties like connectivity issues, a maximum of 72 hours have been given to upload the FIRs. Such decisions have to be taken by DySP concerned and the same should be communicated to the magistrate. The state police chief also instructed that a three-member committee headed by a DySP of the special branch shall be constituted to consider any petitions regarding non publishing of any FIRs citing sensitive nature.
The committee will have to take a decision within three days of receipt of the petition. Meanwhile, one major challenge before the police is the voluminous storage space required for keeping all the FIRs online. On an average about six lakh cases are registered in the state annually. "We are yet to decide on how long a FIR should be kept online. What we plan is to have an FIR online at least till the case is charge sheeted," said Mr Behera. Though the state police launched a facility to publish FIRs online in 2012, it could not be taken forward effectively.
