re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

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re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

It happens all the time. My friends TVS apache got stolen while parked just outside his house. He went the perils of any common man would. Filing a FIR, paying money to the writer and the local SI and shunting between police station and insurance office for nearly two months.

The case was moving slower than a snail. He got hold of his friend whose father works in the Secretariat and made some calls to the local police station through some channel and finally managed to get the investigation report.

If you know someone higher up the ladder, who can push papers using their force ( I know it is not a good thing, but we need to get things done and no other way. We are not Gandhi, apologies to say this.)

re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

In my case the insurance agency clearly told me two options-
1. Wait for the closing investigation report(which the police will deliberately delay)
2. Submit all the necessary docs and settle for a certain amount which is less than the IDV.(In my case my IDV was INR 112000/- & Bajaj gave me INR 100000/-; in this way Bajaj person saved 12k & I had the money with in 1 month)

I opted for 2nd option as I was not local & I have demanding office hours/schedule so I can't shuttle between court, police, insurance agency etc).
Insurance agency people very much knows about our bogus police force and archaic legal system & they use this against us. Although I would say this is sort of a scam but at that time I needed a motorcycle very much for commuting.

Thanks. Hope this helps.

Ritabroto

N.B.- Like he said & I also felt-If you have any powerful political/bureaucrat connection then apply it otherwise police will drive you mad.

Re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

Hey [MENTION=72750]Ritabroto[/MENTION], Which bike did you lose?!!

Re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

Thunderbird 350.

Re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

Ajay where do you live?
If the case is not solved yet please tell.

Re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

Update: The formalities from the police department are done. I personally visited the civil court on request of the court duty constable.

Now all the required documents are sent to customer serivce centre of insurance conpany.

I will share a detailed update with the procedure and my personal experience soon .

Re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

Yup. Please do share what happened, so that others might learn who find themselves in the same position as you.

Re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

Yes...sorry for delay on my detailed story...i am on my honeymoon...was stuck in bali due to airport closure...now in jakarta enroute back to home...will update ASAP when I am back...today got the news from insurance person who happens to be my close friend that the claim has been sent for approval...will get my IDV refunded by couple of days...

Re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

What happens in the police find the culprits and retrieve your bike ? Is it scrapped/handed over to the insurance company/ handed back to you ?

Re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

Well there is a twist....and something similar happened with me....but police didn't find my bike...someone else did... After I had completed all the formality....so its up to you based on the condition of your bike you can take the call....in my case it was in very bad condition...so i refused...also it was 100 km away from my place....if police finds the culprits which didn't happen in my case...i am not sure but its definitely more complicated...and it still takes more time to get the custody if bike from police...due to case proceedings...

Re: Motorcycle Theft: Police delaying furnishing of a report

So here is my story...please give your time to read. Its arranged in chronology and with tips on mistakes to be avoided while buying insurance, and procedure to be followed in case of theft. Its totally based on my experience, so other my have different opinion about the procedure. For that I am always ready to discuss. Please do bear my English. If anything is not clear, please let me know.

Mine was theft case where my vehicle after stolen was not traced by police and hence it was required to get the case approved from the court under 'A' category of final report which states that, the vehicle and the criminal are untraceable after investigation and the court approves closing of case investigation with the claimant's consent.

Procedure with the type of case where vehicle or criminal are found can vary.

Ideally this type of case should be closed in 6 months(my opinion following standard procedure). It took me almost a year.

10 Dec'16 - Insurance renewal and OLD mistake committed while buying insurance

1. Renewed my bike insurance after its one year of completion. ( Note : IDV value changed with 3rd deprecation got applied.)
2. Mistake : Didn't checked the IDV after buying insurance of the new bike. Due to Bajaj AS200 being a new model in the market, insurance companies system was not updated. The first depreciation applicable to IDV was calculated already less than what it should be. Had already lost some money here. Even though Bike wasn't got stolen at the movement.
3. New Insurance before RTO registration and Evaluated IDV from Ex-Showroom price ~91,500
   
4. % Depreciation (1st Bracket) = 76943 / 91500 = 8.4 % (Ideal to be 5 % of Vehicle Ex-showroom price, can be negotiated while buying insurance policy)
5. After 6 months 2nd bracket of depreciation is applied.
6. After renewing the insurance after one year(3rd bracket). See the IDV. This is the value which will be paid to you after total loss.
   
   Tip : Always check the IDV and understand the calculation of evaluation and negotiate or pay little extra premium to keep the IDV as maximum as possible
   Also, maintain the original hard copy of the insurance copy. It's must will be required for claim settlement.

31st Dec,2016 - Bike got stolen, Filed Registered FIR

1. Bike got stolen somewhere around midnight. Had parked on regular place in handle locked condition. No extra locks. Tank Full. Might be cleverly stolen with duplicate key.
2. Reported the incident to the applicable police station next day afternoon after returning to my senses about the reality of the situation. Got the copy of Registered FIR signed by the officer in charge without stamp of the police station. Do get the copy signed on spot. Had to face some issues during the claim settlement procedure.
3. Initially police suggested to wait for a day, just to make sure your bike is really got stolen, no pranks, no forgot or parked somewhere kind of situation. And believe me, it can avoid lot of trouble if you leave in a neighborhood, where thefts are regular and chances of retrieving vehicle by police are high. This will save lot of paper work involving some fees if you are lucky enough and vehicle is found.
4. However, not everyone can remain so cool during such situation and filing FIR is the first thing which will officially start your claim settlement procedure with the insurance company.
5. Once the FIR is registered (nowadays online), intimate the insurance company with your policy number about the theft ASAP.

1st Week, Jan'17 - Police Panchnama

1. Police Conducted Panchnama (Formal investigation of crime place, check genuinity of crime, take statements of witnesses). I don't know what it's called in other part of India. But it's very formal standard procedure.
2. However, always better to get this done ASAP by insisting police officer.
3. Signing of statements to be get done on spot. In my case I had to take some of my neighbors to police station for signing formally on panchnaama report.
4. Also remember, to follow up with the person in charge of the investigation which will be clearly mentioned on the FIR copy. In my case, I was following up with the person who took my complaint. Lost unnecessarily lot of time and some money also.

Jan'17 to March'17 - Investigation by Police & Third Party Insurance Agency's Detective Service

1. Ideally police will wait for 90 days to declare your vehicle untraceable. Very much depends on their experience, area of crime, type of bike. If you have good contacts and in ideal case if they have not traced the vehicle, they can actually start preparing a formal report.
2. Start of case closure procedure which eventually requires courts contempt, Involves lot of paperwork. A special department under your police stations sub-division will take care of formally preparing case papers and it's the duty of officer in charge of investigation to submit his reports and get it approved from them ASAP to file them in the court.
3. Apart from police, insurance companies third party investigators will also inspect the crime and will formalize some statement and document it.
4. Remember this guys can be most helpful with the investigation. Usually they are more co-operative than police. They collect following things from you.
5. The list of documents can vary from company to company and case to case.
6. The insurance company will also start sending you the reminders for completion of documents required for formally settlement of claim. They sent me first reminder in the month of April. So its pretty clear that even insurance company will wait for 90 days before actually initiating the closure of the claim.
7. You have to visit RTO for getting stolen remark on RC of your vehicle. Its important and should be done ASAP after FIR.

April'17 to Aug'17 - Case Paper Preparation

1. It took 5 months for police to formalize all case paper required to be presented in court for formally closing the case.
2. Remember, they are very experience people, will give you n number of reasons, it's always better to use some contact if possible.

Sept'17 - Nov'17 - Case submission in Court

1. Although my case papers very ready, due to lack of information, laziness of me and lack of contacts, it took another months to actually get the approved case papers submitted in court
2. Note, now the court duty constable will be responsible to file the papers in court. Not the investigating officer.
3. Fortunately the court duty office was punctual and voluntarily responded many times. It took me 2 days in court, since this type of cases don't get a formal hearing, so we have to wait in the court for judge to entertain us as time permits.
4. The judge asked me if I had any complaint on so far the investigation made by police. Even though I didn't like the delay caused, Since the Final 'A' Report was almost the only pending document, I denied and request the judge to allow police to stop investigation and close the case under 'A' report category.
5. It took me another 2 days to actually get hands on the report submitted by police and the judge's remark on one of the back side of that report page with seal and signature. I received the photocopy of the report. Original remains with the police submitted in court. Remember to take the scan copy of the document if possible.
6. I quickly couriered the remaining photocopies of documents
7. The documents were refused on the basis that they were only photocopies and not true copies. So had to take another set of photocopy of FIR and Final "A' Report with courts remark to police station to get them attested as true copy.
8. I had a missing the original insurance copy since renewed online and being careless about keeping the record, but got this managed by the agent who had issued me the policy. He sent it directly to CSC of insurance company.

Dec'17 - Claim Settlement

1. Finally after furnishing all the documents by Nov'17 end, they took another 15 days to release payment which was directly credited to my account details given prior by NEFT.

A twist in the story.....

1. In the month of Oct'17, an article was published in the local newspaper about a person who runs an NGO for finding the owner of the stolen vehicles laying in police stations in the nearby 2,3 districts.
2. The newspaper mentioned that till date he had found out more than 3000 owners.
3. Out of curiosity, I called him, and shared him the details. He sounded very positive after hearing me out and surprisingly, in 3 days of time he actually found the vehicle. By that time, I had finished all paperwork in court, so there was no turning back.
4. Although, it was a good news, but after seen the condition of my vehicle (no rear wheel, fender, foot pegs broken, no disc brake chain, tire etc), its location(100 kms away), and if court work was not completed, the formality involved in releasing the vehicle from that police station, and his fees, I decided not to retrieve it.