What to do in the first 24 hours after an FIR

The first day after an FIR is the day on which most of the avoidable damage happens. Not because anything dramatic occurs, but because people do reasonable-seeming things — call the complainant, explain themselves at the police station, delete a chat thread — that are very hard to undo later. What follows is the sequence that protects you.

1. Establish what you are actually facing

Get a certified copy of the FIR. You are entitled to it, and until you have it nobody can tell you anything useful. What matters on that document is not the narrative, which will be one-sided, but the list of sections. Those sections determine three things at once: whether the offence is cognizable, whether it is bailable, and how much time you have.

A cyber matter charged only under Sections 66C and 66D of the IT Act is a different situation from the same facts charged with Section 318 BNS added. The first is bailable. The second is not.

2. Do not contact the complainant

The instinct to call and sort it out directly is understandable and almost always harmful. Any contact after an FIR can be characterised as an attempt to influence a witness or to compel a settlement, and it appears in the reply to your bail application. If a settlement is genuinely available, it should be negotiated through counsel and placed on the record properly.

3. Do not delete anything

Deletion is recoverable and it is discoverable. Deleted chats, wiped devices and closed accounts are read as consciousness of guilt, and the inference is difficult to displace. Preserve everything, including material you think is unhelpful — your counsel needs to know about it before the prosecution raises it.

4. Handle the police notice correctly

In most cases where the offence carries less than seven years, the police are required to issue a notice under Section 35(3) BNSS (formerly Section 41A CrPC) rather than arrest. This follows the Supreme Court's directions in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar.

Attend. Ignoring a notice is the single fastest way to convert a situation in which you were not going to be arrested into one in which you are. But attend with counsel, and read anything before you sign it. Cooperating with an investigation and signing a statement drafted by someone else are not the same act.

5. Assess bail on day one, not day ten

If any non-bailable section appears in the FIR, an anticipatory bail application under Section 482 BNSS should be assessed immediately. Where the papers are available, an application can usually be drafted and filed the same working day before the Sessions Court at Gurugram.

The reason for the urgency is structural: anticipatory bail exists only until arrest. Once you are in custody, that remedy is gone and you are into regular bail, arguing from a materially weaker position, with your employment and reputation already affected.

6. Gather your own documents now

Whatever your defence eventually turns out to be, it will be documentary. Bank statements, invoices, contracts, delivery records, communications with the other side, attendance and travel records. These are much easier to obtain in week one than in month eight, and having them ready shortens everything that follows.

7. Ask whether the case should exist at all

A significant proportion of FIRs, particularly in commercial and matrimonial disputes, are civil matters wearing criminal clothes. Where the FIR discloses no offence, or the dispute is fundamentally contractual, a petition under Section 528 BNSS before the Punjab & Haryana High Court can end proceedings years earlier than a trial would. It is discretionary and it depends on the material on record — but it is a question worth asking at the start rather than after two years of dates.

The short version

• Get the FIR and read the sections
• Do not contact the complainant
• Do not delete anything
• Attend on any notice, with counsel, and read before signing
• Assess anticipatory bail the same day
• Collect your documents while they are easy to get
• Ask whether quashing is available

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