The article is written by Ayush Verma from Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow.

Have you lost your wallet along with other documents like Driving License, Aadhar Card, PAN Card, Credit and Debit Cards?

You must be dreading to go to the police station as there is a constant fright that authorities might not be co-operative.

However, you need not worry or go to the police station to file your complaint. You can file a complaint online as police department of many states have come up with online websites where one just needs to follow some steps to file a complaint. This saves your time, money and is free of any harassment.

Things to be done immediately after losing your wallet

• The first thing you need to do is to block your credit and debit cards so that no one can misuse them. They can also be misused by doing some illegal transactions; that’s why you need to file an FIR so that you are not made liable for a payment done by some other person, though the person used your card.
• The second thing you need to do is re-apply for your lost Debit and Credit Cards. You will be provided with a form by your bank for getting a Debit Card. You may also be asked to submit the copy of your FIR for issuance of new Debit Card. Your bank may also ask to provide your Address proof, for re-issuance of Credit Card. 
• You also need to apply for important documents like PAN Card, Aadhar Card, Voter ID Card and Driving License etc.

Steps to register your online complaint in Uttar Pradesh

Step 1

• First, you have to go to the website of UP Police department. The website to file your complaint can be accessed here.
• You will have to register as a ‘new user’ if you visit the website for the first time. If you have already registered, you can click on ‘existing user’ and login to your account. The menu would be like this:

• When you click on ‘new user’, a new page will open in which you will have to enter your user name, mobile number and email to get yourself registered. The page would be like this:

• An OTP will be sent to your number which you will be asked to enter on the website to verify yourself.
• Your account will be activated as soon as you verify yourself; now you are ready to file a complaint.

Step 2

• Click on ‘Register Lost Report to file an FIR, or you can also see your previously submitted report by clicking on ‘View Registered Report’.
• You will have to enter your personal details like Complainant’s name, son of/ wife of/ daughter of name, Complete Correspondence Address, Mobile No. and E-Mail etc. Then, click on ‘next’ button.

Note: Do not enter any false information, otherwise strict action will be taken against you by Police. So you need to enter the information correctly.

The menu would be like this:

Step 3

• By clicking on ‘next’ button, the following menu will appear:

• Now, you will be asked to enter the details of the event like Place of Occurrence where you will have to write the name of the place where the event occurred. 
• After that, write the name of the district and police station which falls under the area where the event took place. 
• Then you will have to give an estimate of time during which the event took place. 
• Lastly, you need to enter the complete details of the incident in the ‘brief facts’ section. You should enter information like when and how the event happened and all the relevant information that you remember. 
• Click on ‘next button’.

Step 4

• After clicking on ‘next’ button, you will see the following menu:

• Under ‘Article Lost’ Section, select the name of the lost article from the drop-down menu. If the lost article is not mentioned in the list then you can select ‘others’ and describe about the article in brief. 
• If you want to add more than one article, the same can be added after clicking on ‘Add More Articles’ option, in a similar way.
• Click on ‘Submit’ button after entering the details. You will receive an OTP on your registered mobile number and E-mail address which you need to enter the OTP and click on ‘Confirm’ button in the following menu:

• After clicking on ‘Confirm’ button you will get a ‘Lost Report Confirmation’ with your Report number as shown below:

What to do next?

• A digitally signed copy of the FIR will be sent to your registered E-mail address in the PDF format. You can get your Lost Article Report printed and use it for the desired purpose.
• From time to time, you can check the status of your FIR report by entering the FIR number which you get after successful registration of the report.

List of documents needed 

You may lose several documents along with your wallet, so you should know what information you need to provide to register your lost articles/ documents.

However, one thing you should never forget is that you should always save the necessary information relating to a document like its No., place of issue, or any ID etc beforehand so that you can easily file a complaint when something is lost. Such information will also help you in getting your document back, if possible, for e.g. if you have lost your aadhar card but you know your aadhar card number, you can get your aadhar card reprinted. The following list will help you with the information to be provided, and don’t forget to save the information in advance.

Conclusion

If you have lost something and do not want to go to the police station to file your complaint, quickly follow the above mentioned steps to easily register your complaint. It will save your time and is free of any harassment. Also you can reach out to me for any help at [email protected] or connect with me on Linkedin.