'Tum Log Police Se Ghir Chuke Ho': Why Allahabad High Court Equated This UP Police FIR With A 'Movie Script'

The Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench) on Monday strongly deprecated the growing trend of Uttar Pradesh Police FIRs containing highly exaggerated content that appear to be borrowed heavily from "movie scripts". "Time and again this Court has pointed out that the language being used in the FIRs does not reflect the ground position, rather appears to be hearsay, scripted and appears to be heavily borrowed from the movie scripts and is fanciful and highly exaggerated", a bench of Justice Abdul Moin and Justice Pramod Kumar Srivastava remarked. The bench was dealing with a writ petition filed by one Akbar Ali challenging an FIR lodged for the offence of Attempt to murder under the BNS and various provisions of the Arms Act and the UP-Cow Slaughter Act. Perusing the FIR in question, the bench found various blatant incongruities reflecting the "patent abuse of law" at the behest of the Police authorities, which the Court said, rendered the FIR as capable of being quashed. Essentially, according to the FIR, the police party was informed by a special informer (Mukhbir Khas) about the alleged slaughter of cow progeny and the subsequent intent to dispose of the meat. The FIR revealed that it was lodged at 14:24 hours (02:24 p.m.) on January 22, 2026, while the time of the alleged incident was indicated as 10:45 hours (10:45 am) on the same day. Despite the broad daylight, the police claimed in the FIR that, upon approaching the spot, they heard voices saying, "Ujala hone wala hai" (it is about to be dawn). The Bench questioned this narrative as it remarked thus: "…the incident is said to have taken place at 10:45 hours and obviously must be because the FIR mentions so, it is not understood as to how at 10:45 hours, the dawn is still to break!!" The bench further noted that the FIR uses a popular movie dialogue, specifically stating that the police yelled, "Tum log police se ghir chuke ho, Aatm Samarpan kar do" (You people are surrounded by the police, surrender). To this, the accused purportedly responded, "Yeh...police wale hain, inko goli maro, bachkar nahin jaane chahiye" (These are police personnel, shoot them, they should not survive/escape). The FIR further stated that when the police fired upon the accused party, one of them yelled, "Hai goli lag gai" (Oh, I have been shot). Subsequently, three persons were caught, but a fourth ran away, and the arrested accused named the petitioner as being involved in the alleged offences. Taking note of these averments made in the FIR and the blatant incongruities, the bench observed thus: "…time has come for the Courts to now step-in and put a check to the fanciful and highly exaggerated FIRs which are being lodged by the authorities, of which the case in hand is a blatant example". In this regard, the bench referred to the Supreme Court's judgment in State of Haryana vs.Bhajan Lal to stress that that the criminal proceedings can be quashed under Article 226 where the allegations made in the FIR are so absurd and inherently improbable on the basis of which no prudent person can ever reach a just conclusion that there is sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused. In view of this, the Court noted that the allegations as levelled in the FIR are "fanciful and prima facie absurd" and inherently improbable as detailed above. However, the Court directed the Superintendent of Police, District Bahraich, to file his personal affidavit replying to the aforesaid incongruities that emerge from a bare perusal of the FIR. The personal affidavit has to be filed within two weeks and the matter has been posted for March 16. In case, the personal affidavit is not filed, the SP will have to appear in person alongwith the record to assist the Court on the next date of listing Till then, the Court stayed coercive action against the petitioner pursuant to the impugned FIR.

'Tum Log Police Se Ghir Chuke Ho': Why Allahabad High Court Equated This UP Police FIR With A 'Movie Script'

Sparsh Upadhyay

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