One night at the Police Station

Standing at the Andheri Police Station I was thinking if this would be a long wait as the Constable shooed me off to stand outside. The Chief Officer was busy, even though only one chair out of the 7 Chairs was occupied. I stood there twisting my shoes on the thick dust on the footsteps. The Constable came outside and chatted with people known to him and finishing off his conversation asked me in the State language, “Kaay karaaychi aaahey?”(meaning “What do you want to do?”). I said, “Complaint karaaychi aahey”(meaning “I wish to file a complaint”). He asked again,”Kashaachi?(of what?)”. I replied,”Cell chi(of the cell)”. I am a bit poor in the State language spoken here and so I made up my mind to speak in Hindi.(From here on the conversation would be translated in English for easier understanding). He asked again, “Of what?”. I replied, “Cell. Cell. Mobile Phone”, I closed my palm and placed it near my ear to resemble a Mobile Phone. “Oh! Mobile! Why don’t you say clearly”, replied the Constable. I was left spell-bound. I kept my mouth shut. I deeply mistrusted the police. This made my belief even stonger.

“When did you lose it?”.

”On Friday”

“And you got time to come now?”(This present day was Monday)

“I didn’t have the receipts with me, Sir”

“Where did you lose it?”

I recited as my Friend, who had also lost his mobile and gone through this difficulty, told me to.“I got down from the bus at this bus stop”, I pointed towards the bus-stop opposite the Police Station,”and checked the time on my mobile. Then I walked a few steps, further into the crowd, towards the station, and again, checked my pocket but the cell wasn’t there.”

“Ok. Wait”. The constable went inside to the Chief Officer and whispered something into his ears. The Chief glanced at me. The constable then waved his hands as a gesture for me to come in.

The Constable asked, “Where did you say you lost your Phone?”. I was prepared for this question. Policemen are quite keen to move the complaint away from them if the incident didn’t occur in their area of control. I stubbornly repeated that I had lost the phone here. I replied,”Here”, pointing towards the ground, so that they know it was their area.

“Here? Did you lose the Phone in this Police Station?”, asked the Constable humourously, and the co-policemen giggled. I gave a mirthless laugh back to the constables.

“No Sir. I was on the streets near the station…..”, before could complete, the constable said, “Station. Then you would have to contact the Railway Police”.

“No! I didn’t enter the Railway Station. I said, I was on the way to it. But I didn’t enter it”. The constable looked at the Chief with a dejected look on his face. The constable was surely wavered to write my complaint. The Chief nodded, and the constable told me to sit at the right-hand side chair. “Ooh! That was close”, I told myself. My friend who had also lost his Phone told me he was made to step into nearly 4 Police Stations before he could lodge a complaint.

“You would have to wait as the Night Shift guys would be coming”, replied the Constable. “Oh No! Not this Shift Thing again”, I cried to myself. It was 8:15pm, and I wondered when the Night Shift Policemen would be entering. Luckily, some policemen entered the Office and started chit-chatting. After a few minutes an old police-officer with specs came in and sat adjacent to me. Just when things were free flowing for me, the constable’s voice came in and changed everything. He barked, “Tell them to go now. The ‘Missing Complaint’ Files should be closed by 7pm. They come in when they find time. We can’t work according to their wish.” I had never heard of an odder comment that let me into unmistakable bewilderment. “And they want us to call them ‘Our Friends’ ”, I whispered to myself. I calmed myself down. The Chief who was still present behind me replied supporting me, “I have made him wait. If we didn’t want to do it, we shouldn’t have made him wait. And people don’t come in as their wish when they lose costly assets like Mobile Phone”.

Finally, another constable was sent to lodge my complaint. This new constable was good to me and asked me each question with a smile. “Your name?”. “My name”, I replied, sounding thoroughly relieved now that my complaint was being filed. I showed him my PAN Card. He wrote it with a speed of about two letters every three second. He was left handed.

“Address?”. I gave him my address.