How to File a Case in Bangladesh: GD vs FIR vs Complaint Case, and What to Do If Police Refuse

In this guide: Filing a GD · Filing an FIR · When the police refuse your case · Drafting a complaint petition that survives · Two warnings before you file

The short answer

• GD (General Diary). For recording information: a lost item, a threat, or a non-cognizable offence. It is a record, not a case.
• FIR (ejahar, police case). For cognizable offences such as theft, assault causing hurt, fraud, abduction or murder. The police register and investigate.
• Complaint case (nalishi mamla). A petition directly to a Magistrate. Use it where the police will not act, where you want the court to control the case, or where the law requires it.

Filing a GD

Go to the police station for the area where the incident happened with a short written application giving your name, NID and phone number, and ask for the GD number and a copy signed by the duty officer. For lost documents and items, such as an NID, passport, phone or certificates, you can file an online GD through the Bangladesh Police portal or app.

A GD about a threat is useful evidence if something happens later. But for a non-cognizable offence, the police cannot investigate on a GD alone; they need a Magistrate’s permission under section 155.

Filing an FIR

For a cognizable offence, the officer in charge must record the information under section 154. Give a clear written ejahar: who did what, when and where, who saw it, and what injuries or losses resulted. Sign it, take the case number and ask for a copy of the FIR. If there are injuries, get a medical certificate from a government hospital as early as possible; a late certificate is attacked at trial.

Under the 2026 amendments the investigation should ordinarily be completed within 60 working days, extendable by a Magistrate.

When the police refuse your case

This is common in land disputes, family disputes and cases against influential people. The officer in charge has no discretion to refuse a cognizable offence, but refusals happen. Your options:

• Complain in writing to the Superintendent of Police or, in a metropolitan area, the Deputy Commissioner of Police or the Police Commissioner. Keep the received copy.
• File a complaint petition before the Chief Judicial Magistrate or Chief Metropolitan Magistrate under section 200. The Magistrate examines you on oath and can take cognizance, order an inquiry, direct the police to investigate under section 156(3), or dismiss the petition if no offence is disclosed.
• Special laws have their own routes. Women and children repression cases can go to the Nari-o-Shishu Tribunal, and cyber offences to the Cyber Tribunal, where the police have not registered the case.

Put the refusal on record. It strengthens your petition to the court.

Drafting a complaint petition that survives

• Set out facts in date order. Facts, not conclusions.
• Name each accused and say exactly what each one did.
• List witnesses with addresses and what each saw.
• Attach documents: deeds, messages, medical certificates, earlier GD copies.
• Choose the right sections. Wrong sections cause dismissal or delay.

Two warnings before you file

A knowingly false case exposes the complainant to compensation of up to Tk 50,000 and to prosecution. And some disputes that feel criminal are really civil: a buyer who will not hand over land, a partner who will not pay. Filing them as criminal cases often fails and can be quashed. Some family and money disputes also now require pre-case mediation in the districts where it is in force. Get advice on the right forum first.