Which police station handles credit card fraud in Kolkata

By Advocate Panchanand Shaw, Bar Council of West Bengal · Published 3 Nov 2026 · Cyber crime

Credit card fraud in Kolkata is registered at the police station that has jurisdiction over the place where the offence was committed. For a card that was never out of your hands, that usually means the police station covering your address and your bank branch, and it can also mean the station covering the merchant or the ATM where the unauthorised transaction took place. The important point is the one most victims are told incorrectly: a station cannot refuse to register your complaint simply because the beneficiary account is in another state or another country.

Below is how jurisdiction actually works for card fraud in the city, what a zero FIR is, and what to do if the station you approach turns you away.

Jurisdiction: the general rule for card fraud

Criminal cases are tried, and therefore investigated, by the police and courts within whose local jurisdiction the offence was committed. For cheating, that means where the deception was practised and where the property was delivered. Applied to card fraud, the places that can claim jurisdiction include the place where the card details were misused, the place where the merchant or the acquiring bank is located, and the place where the victim's account was debited.

For a card-not-present fraud, where the offender sat in one state, the fake payment page was hosted in another, and your card was billed by a merchant in a third, jurisdiction is genuinely split. Courts have generally accepted that the station where the victim's account or device is located can register and investigate, because that is where the loss was suffered and where the evidence begins. The position is not fully settled for offences that cross national borders, and you should not be surprised if two stations each point at the other.

Zero FIR: what it is and why it matters here

Section 173 of the BNSS, 2023 requires the officer in charge of a police station to register an FIR where the information discloses a cognizable offence. The information may be given orally or in writing, must be reduced to writing, read over to you, and a copy must be given to you free of cost. Where the information relates to an offence committed outside that station's area, the station must still register the case and forward it to the station that has jurisdiction. That is the zero FIR, and for card fraud it is the rule that defeats the most common excuse used to turn victims away at the counter.

Section 173 also permits a short preliminary enquiry in certain cases before an FIR is registered, but that enquiry is time-bound and is not a reason to leave your complaint unrecorded for weeks. Everything that is written about your complaint should reach you in a copy, whether the station calls it an FIR or a general diary entry.

The Kolkata picture

Kolkata city is policed by the Kolkata Police, and the station that will handle your complaint depends on where you live, where the transaction took place and where your bank branch is. The commissionerate maintains a dedicated cyber crime unit for offences that need technical investigation, and the West Bengal Police operates district-level and state-level cyber crime units for the districts outside the city. The exact designation and location of these units changes with reorganisations, so confirm the current position before you travel to one of them.

Two things are true regardless of which unit ends up handling the case. First, the police complaint and the bank complaint are separate, and you should not wait for one before making the other. Second, the fastest route to any recovery is the 1930 helpline and the cybercrime.gov.in portal, because the report made there lets banks act on a freeze without waiting for a police file to be opened.

Where to file, by situation

What the complaint must contain

A complaint that a station can act on is specific. Set out your name and full address, the bank and card details, the date and time of each unauthorised transaction, the amount, the merchant or beneficiary details visible on the statement, the reference number of your bank complaint and of the 1930 report, and the fact that the card was in your possession and the transactions were not authorised by you. Attach the statement extract and the transaction alerts.

State the offence you are reporting. On the criminal side, this is cheating under section 318 of the BNS, 2023 and cheating by personation under section 319 where the offender pretended to be someone else. On the technology side, section 66C of the IT Act, 2000 punishes identity theft, meaning the fraudulent use of another person's password or unique identification feature, and section 66D punishes cheating by personation using a computer resource. Cases under these provisions are tried by a Magistrate, and appeals lie onward to the Sessions Court.

If the station refuses your complaint

Escalate in writing, not at the counter. Under section 173 of the BNSS, 2023, where the officer in charge refuses to register the case, you may send the substance of the information in writing to the Superintendent of Police, who may investigate or direct a subordinate to do so. In the city the equivalent senior officer is the Deputy Commissioner of Police. If that produces nothing, section 175(3) of the BNSS allows a Magistrate to direct an investigation on your application, and Article 226 of the Constitution allows the Calcutta High Court to be moved for a mandamus compelling registration.

Which court will hear the case

Card fraud cases under the IT Act and the BNS are tried by a Magistrate in the city's magistrate courts, with appeals to the Sessions Court and thereafter to the High Court. For offences within Kolkata, the magistrate courts sit at Bankshall Court, and the sessions work of the city is handled by the City Sessions Court. Where the police refuse to act, the writ petition goes to the Calcutta High Court. Where the bank's refusal is the grievance, the forum is the RBI Ombudsman or a consumer commission under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, not a criminal court.

Common mistakes

• Accepting the station's statement that the case belongs to another state, and going home without a written record.
• Filing only the bank complaint and never the police complaint, leaving the freeze without an investigating file.
• Waiting for the bank to conclude its internal enquiry before going to the police, by which time the money has moved.
• Approaching the cyber crime unit directly where the law requires the local station to register the zero FIR first.
• Assuming one complaint covers every transaction; list each fraudulent debit separately with its date and amount.

How the investigation actually proceeds

Once the case is registered, the investigating officer will seek the transaction records from your bank and from the beneficiary bank, the account opening details of the receiving account, and the internet protocol or device data associated with the transaction. Where the money has moved through several accounts, the trail is followed through each one, and requests are sent to banks outside the state through the police machinery. This is slow work, and it is why cases are registered quickly but investigated over months rather than days.

Your role in the investigation is limited but real. You will be asked to give a detailed statement, to produce the bank records and the alerts, and sometimes to identify a device or a document. Answer fully and keep a copy of what you said. Where the officer tells you a request has been sent to another state, ask for the reference of that request and note the date.

Running the bank and police tracks together

The police complaint and the bank claim are two separate processes that should run at the same time. The bank's duty to act on an unauthorised transaction under the RBI directions does not depend on an FIR being registered, and the freeze on a beneficiary account does not depend on a charge sheet being filed. A victim who waits for the police to finish before notifying the bank often loses the money and the claim together. File online first, then at the station, and notify the bank's nodal officer the same day.

Documents to carry to the station

• Proof of identity and address, and the card and account details.
• The statement extract showing every disputed transaction.
• The alert messages and e-mails for those transactions.
• The reference number of your 1930 report or portal complaint.
• The bank's complaint acknowledgement, if the bank has already been notified.

What happens after the FIR

The station gives you a free copy of the FIR, and you should keep it with the complaint number. From there the file goes to an investigating officer, and the case either ends in a charge sheet, in which the accused is tried by a Magistrate, or in a closure report, which you can oppose. If the police register the case but take no steps, the remedies are the same as for a refusal: a written escalation, an application under section 175(3) of the BNSS, and, if necessary, a writ in the Calcutta High Court.

When the merchant is outside India

Card fraud billed by an overseas merchant adds a further complication. The offence remains triable in India so long as a material part of it occurred here, which the debit to an Indian account supplies, but the offender and the records sit abroad, and any request for information has to travel through international channels. The practical consequence is that the criminal case may move slowly while the bank claim moves faster, so the chargeback and the liability claim under the RBI directions deserve as much of your attention as the FIR does.

When to involve a lawyer

A lawyer is useful when a station has refused in writing, when the case has been shuttled between two jurisdictions, or when the bank and the police are each waiting for the other. The escalation under section 173 and the application under section 175(3) are both technical steps, and a badly framed application costs weeks. How these cases are routed in the state is set out on our page on cyber crime practice in West Bengal, and the practical handling of police and bank complaints is described under cyber crime work in Kolkata. You can contact the chamber with the transaction details and any refusal you have received.

Frequently asked questions

Information for general guidance only and not legal advice. Provisions cited follow the Information Technology Act 2000, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023.

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