Criminal Complaints

A friend in Vashi lends a stranger ₹60,000 after being promised a share in a business that turns out not to exist. The police station takes the story down, says it is a “civil matter” and sends him home. He still wants the person punished, not just sued. The law gives him a second door: he can walk into a Magistrate’s court with a written allegation of his own. What must that document contain, and what will the Magistrate do with it?

In two minutes

A criminal complaint is a written allegation made directly to a Magistrate, asking the court to take cognizance of an offence, examine the complainant on oath and issue process against the accused; under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (BNSS) it is defined in s.2(1)(h), taken up under ss.210 and 223 to 227, and it replaces the complaint procedure of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (CrPC).

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