Mumbai cops not at fault in asking family to file FIR, say IPS officers

A legal cybercrime expert tells mid-day messages of complaint on WhatsApp are neither considered prima facie evidence, nor an instigator to file an FIR

Indian Police Service (IPS) officers from Maharashtra have been discussing whether or not the city police should have acted on Sushant Singh Rajput's brother-in-law and IPS officer from Haryana, O P Singh's messages to a city DCP about the actor's life being in danger. Most have agreed that the then Deputy Commissioner of Police of Zone IX Paramjit Singh Dahiya was not at fault.

Like many in the country, IPS officers too are discussing the actor's alleged suicide on WhatsApp groups with friends and colleagues.

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On one such WhatsApp group of officers, some initiated an informal debate on whether the Mumbai police should have registered a case based just on the texts from Singh.

"Everyone who responded was of the opinion that the Mumbai police (the then DCP) was not at fault. Most said that the actor's family may have informed the local DCP about their grievances on Whatsapp, but they should have ideally registered an official complaint than merely sending text messages," a senior IPS officer who is part of the group told mid-day on condition of anonymity.

Singh in his messages to Dahiya in February had claimed that the actor's life is in danger.

Lawyers too opined that the police did not violate rules. "WhatsApp messages may not essentially qualify as an instigator to file the suo motto FIR. They don't count as prima facie evidence for police to file an FIR," advocate Dr Prashant Mali, a practising cybercrime lawyer and faculty at the National Police & Judicial academy, told mid-day.

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