The law allows police to 'amend' an FIR in a certain sense, ie, to change the offences that they believe were committed by accused, amid new findings at the stage of investigation.
For example, if a case of attempt to murder (Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code) has been registered against person X for making a brutal attack on person Y, and person Y dies after the FIR has been filed, the police can go on to charge X with murder (Section 302 IPC).
Similarly, during investigation of physical assault, if findings point towards rape, the police investigation can be updated to involve sections of the IPC dealing with rape.
The FIR – the First Information Report – is itself not exactly modified in these circumstances, but the investigation which began with the FIR is modified, which is reflected in the case diary and subsequent reports to the courts including the eventual chargesheet.
But what happens when cases are first registered under peculiarly, almost facetiously, disconnected provisions, and the police then, as an afterthought and after securing initial remand of the accused, decides to change them to avoid having their case thrown out by a more senior court?
The bizarre recent cases against Alt-News co-founder Mohammad Zubair, are perhaps good case studies to examine this issue.