Scribe booked for abetment in tower climb case; FIR sections questioned

Bareilly: A local journalist has been charged by Shahjahanpur police under BNS Section 108 (abetment) in connection with a case in which a man climbed a tower to press for action on his grievances, officials said on Sunday. Legal experts said Section 108 is typically invoked only if the person alleged to be the victim dies following the abetment.TOI has accessed two copies of the FIR. In the first, Section 108 was printed, while in the second, shared later, Section 62 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) was added by hand.Shahjahanpur SSP Saurabh Dixit said, “Sections 108 and 62 were both meant to be imposed, but a technical error led to Section 62 not being selected in the FIR. The additional section was entered in the general diary. The journalist has criminal antecedents." Questioning the applicability of the sections, practising Supreme Court advocate Bhuwan Raj said, “This section, prima facie, can be made out only if a person harasses and instigates another to such an extent that the latter is driven to commit suicide. Here, that is not the case. The person climbed the tower to press for his demands and threatened to end his life. How is a journalist responsible? When Section 108 is not made out, Section 62 also may not apply.”According to the FIR, the complainant stated that his younger son had eloped with a girl four to five months ago and had not returned, following which police began an investigation. On Saturday around 7am, his elder son climbed a tower in Shahjahanpur.“I reached the spot and, after persuasion, managed to bring him down. When I asked the reason, he told me that a journalist from a national news organisation had met him a few days ago and said: ‘You should climb the tower and present your grievances before the administration, and if they do not listen, jump from the tower and end your life.’ Being under the influence of the scribe’s instigation, he climbed the tower,” the complainant alleged in the FIR.He further alleged that around 7.15am, the journalist called and told his son not to come down until police closed his case.