In Etah, GRP station filed only four FIRs in 18 years

Agra: Etah may be infamous for being one of the most crime-infested districts in Uttar Pradesh, but one of its police stations has achieved a rare distinction — of registering just four FIRs in 18 years. Not only that, a closure report has been filed in three cases and a chargesheet submitted in another.

The GRP station in Etah was set up in 2001 with eight personnel attached to it.

It was meant to cover eight railway stations. However, the first FIR did not come till nine years later when a computer monitor and keyboard were stolen from Etah railway station premises. Two years later, another case was registered in connection with a theft in the train. In 2016, a third case of murder and voluntarily causing hurt was registered when an unidentified body was found in a train. Similarly, the last FIR was filed in the case of a brawl between locals and the railway gateman in June 2019. Also, two ‘testing FIRs’ were filed when senior officers disguised as locals lodged mock complaints.

Interestingly, the police personnel have already filed a closure report in three cases and a chargesheet in another.

Pratap Singh, station house officer of Etah GRP who took charge seven months ago, said, “Just 85 km from here, cases of chain snatching and robbery are a routine affair. However, there is rarely any complaint filed here for obvious reasons.”

“The main reasons for the low crime rate is that only one train stops here everyday and mostly poor farmers board it. As they usually transport vegetables and agricultural produce to bigger cities, the thieves don’t find it to be a profitable target anyway,” he added.