FIR No 135 of 12th Sept 2014;A proven case turns source of recurring income for Pacca Danga Police Station

STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Strange it may sound yet it is true that majority of postings of Station House Officers (SHOs) in Jammu and Kashmir are determined on the basis of ‘earnings’ of the Police Station. The more ‘remunerative’ the Police Station is, the more will be the stakes for aspiring ‘incumbent’.
The mechanism is so fool-proof that beneficiary superiors know the earning capacity of Police Stations under their jurisdiction because the ‘booty’ is allegedly shared as per well worked out ‘formula’. This is why that immediately after joining the posting, the SHO seeks a brief from the subordinate staff-not about the case files, crime rate or the criminals active under the jurisdiction of the Police Station but about the ‘money’ or ‘Hafta’ it generates on daily, weekly and monthly basis.
There may be some honourable exceptions but unfortunately they appear to be negligible, given the pattern of corruption prevailing across the spectrum.
There are innovations also in the mechanism of collecting Hafta. More the revenue generation, more dynamism is seen in the incumbent SHO. Any incumbent exceeding the ‘target’ emerges as a favourite or blue eyed for the unscrupulous superiors.
Pacca Danga Police Station, only a few hundred meters away from the seat of power in the winter capital, has pioneered a unique mechanism to enhance the income by keeping pending the FIRs registered, for milking the accused by way of monthly installments. Lucky, however, are those who succeed in getting rid of the Thana by one-time settlement.
FIR No 135 registered on 12th September 2014 under Section 154 CrPC for crimes under sections 419/420/465/468/473 RPC is a glaring example of the novel mechanism of the Pacca Danga Police Station.
An officer of the Police Station, on assurance of anonymity, said that this FIR actually falls under ‘monthly revenue generation scheme’. Every month, the accused are required to pay for keeping the file in cold storage. The case proceeds at a snail’s pace till finally hushed up and until then the accused involved are required to pay.
The officer further added that the case under question is almost proven as more than 300 blank stamp papers duly signed, stamped and attested by a Notary had been seized from a stamp vendor who insiders claim is not supposed to sit at Darbargarh area as per the site approved to him. Attestation of blank stamp papers by a Notary is not only cheating of innocent people but a serious offence of misleading judiciary-thanks to connivance of corrupt in the Pacca Danga Police Station. This nexus has not only encouraged the accused to cheat common people but also to keep intact payment of installments to corrupt. The money minting case has not only delayed the presentation of Challan of the FIR, the crime is still going unabated under the ‘kind’ supervision of police. The system of chronic corruption in the police stations and posting of SHOs is continuing unabated which is why the tainted, the suspended, the attached and all those having probes against them are repeated as officers incharge of the police stations for obvious reasons. The anti-climax of this bizarre ‘business’ of ‘money minting and changing hands up to the top’ is known to common law abiding citizens, who cant’ speak a word for the fear of being ‘framed up’ in any flimsy case.