A meets B on the high roads, shows a pistol and demands B's purse. B in consequence, surrenders his purse. Here A has extorted the purse from B by putting him in fear of instant hurt,..... Decide what offence A has committed.

Question: A meets B on the high roads, shows a pistol and demands B's purse. B in consequence, surrenders his purse. Here A has extorted the purse from B by putting him in fear of instant hurt, and being at the time of committing the extortion in his presence. Decide what offence A has committed. [UPJS 2023]

Find the answer to the mains question of IPC only on Legal Bites. [A meets B on the high roads, shows a pistol and demands B's purse. B in consequence, surrenders his purse. Here A has extorted the purse from B by putting him in fear of instant hurt, and being at the time of committing the extortion in his presence. Decide what offence A has committed.]

Answer 

According to Section 390, extortion is robbery-

• When a person commits extortion by putting another person in fear of instant death/hurt/wrongful restraint to that person or to some other person, and
• such a person by so putting another in fear, induces the latter to deliver up the thing extorted, and
• the offender, at the time of committing the extortion, is in the presence of the person put in fear.

Thus, for extortion to become robbery, it is necessary that the offender must be present before the person (sufficiently near) put in fear of injury, and, thus, by reason of his presence is capable enough to carry his threat into effect simultaneously.

The facts of the present case at hand is borrowed from Section 390(b) in The Indian Penal Code. In the case, A meets Z on the high roads, shows a pistol, and demands Z’s purse. Z in consequence, surrenders his purse. Here A has extort­ed the purse from Z by putting him in fear of instant hurt, and being at the time of committing the extortion in his presence. A has therefore committed robbery.

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