Allahabad High Court terms U.P. police’s FIRs ‘borrowed from movies scripts,’ gives relief to the accused

Terming the FIRs lodged by the Uttar Pradesh police as “borrowed from the movie scripts”, “fanciful” and “highly exaggerated”, the Allahabad High Court recently granted interim protection from arrest to the person accused in the case.

Expressing serious concern over the manner in which an FIR was drafted by the Bahraich police, the Division Bench comprising Justice Abdul Moin and Justice Pramod Kumar Srivastava in its order dated February 16, pointed out a significant inconsistency in the timeline recorded in the same.

The case pertains to an FIR lodged against Akbar Ali and two others. They were booked under the Arms Act and the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955. According to the FIR, a police team acted on information received from an informer regarding alleged cow slaughter. Upon reaching the spot, police cautioned the accused by saying “Tum log police se ghir chuke ho, Aatm Samarpan kar do” (you have been gheraoed by the police. You should surrender).

The FIR further read that the police overheard the accused making remarks like ‘ujala hone wala hai’ (dawn was about to break). It also alleges that the accused exhorted each other to fire at the police personnel as they were heard saying “Yeh… police wale hain, inko goli maro, bachkar nahin jaane chahiye”. Police also described how one of the accused yelled ‘hai goli lag gai’ (I am hit with a bullet). 

“Why we indicate that the entire FIR reads like a movies script is that the FIR is being lodged on 22.01.2026 at 14:24 hours, the incident is said to be of 10:45 hours of the same day and the FIR indicates of the persons being arrested indicating “Ujala hone wala hai” (it is about to be dawn). Thus, in case, 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 court noted.

It added that the blatant incongruity in the FIR itself reflects the patent abuse of law at the behest of the authorities rendering the FIR as capable of being quashed.

“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. 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,” court said.

While granting interim protection to the petitioner, the court also sought a personal explanation from the Superintendent of Police, Bahraich, regarding the manner in which the FIR was drafted.