Amendments to Sec 188 of PPC: National Assembly body proposes holding IOs, complainants accountable for fake FIRs

To discourage registration of fake first information reports (FIRs) and wrong indictment of innocent people, a parliamentary panel on Friday proposed to hold the investigation officers (IOs) and the fake complainants accountable. To bring an end to the menace, the committee has suggested that strict disciplinary action should be taken against police officers, notorious for registration of fake FIRs and indicting the complainants who are behind implicating the innocent in bogus cases.
A sub-committee of National Assembly's standing committee on law and justice, which is working on overhauling section 182 of PPC, 1860 to rein in registration of fake FIRs, discussed the amendment and decided to broaden the spectrum of the proposed amendment by holding the investigation officer accountable and providing private party the right to appeal against the fake FIR.
Abdul Ghafoor, a member of the committee said that the committee would hold a meeting with Punjab Bar Council (PBC) soon after Ramazan to finalise the amendments to the law, which is lying before the committee. The amendment was moved by MNA Begum Nuzat Sadiq wherein she pleaded that punishment provided in the PPC for giving false information was insufficient. The proposed amendment increase in imprisonment from six months to five years and a fine from Rs 3,000 to Rs 200,000 on registering fake FIRs.
Ghafoor said that they had gone through the findings of Judicial Commission's report regarding this particular subject, in which it has been suggested that investigation officer, if found guilty of registering fake FIR, should be awarded three-year punishment. If a court finds an FIR as fake or it is registered in connivance with respective police officers, they should be punished, he said, adding that this is the only way to discourage this menace.
He said that it has been observed that lodging fake FIRs or nomination of innocent people is mainly used as means to exploit and extort and the victims are trapped in a vicious circle which ultimately culminate into economic devastation and sometimes tragic incidents. "In the rural set up, it is a major impediment in social cohesion, fostering family feuds, draining even limited resources, and ultimately encumbrance on public exchequer with unnecessary burden on the police and courts," he added.