Explain the essential elements of robbery. When does it amount to dacoity? What offence is committed when the offender while committing the above offence, causes the death of any person?

Question: Explain the essential elements of robbery. When does it amount to dacoity? What offence is committed when the offender while committing the above offence, causes the death of any person? [UPJS 2023]

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Answer

Robbery isn’t defined in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on its own; rather, it is defined in terms of theft and extortion in Section 390 IPC. According to this section, theft is robbery when, in order to commit the theft, while committing the theft, or while carrying away or attempting to carry away property obtained through the theft, the offender voluntarily causes or attempts to cause death, harm, or wrongful restraint to any person, or induces fear of instant death, harm, or wrongful restraint in another person. The theft is then referred to as robbery. It simply means when any person commits theft or while trying to commit theft, he/ she voluntarily causes harm, death or wrongfully restraint such a person on whom he wants to commit theft or a related person. Then this act is known as robbery.

When the following essentials/conditions are met, theft becomes robbery:

• When an offender causes or attempts to cause death, wrongful restraint, or bodily harm while knowing the nature of his/ her acts or having the knowledge what he/ she is doing or
• Offender causes fear in minds of the victim about immediate death, immediate hurt or immediate wrongful restraint.
• If the offender does any of the above acts while committing theft or attempting to commit theft, or while carrying stolen items or attempting to carry stolen property.

Then that act of theft is said to be “robbery.”

In the case of Venugopal v. State of Karnataka (2008), the appellants allegedly stopped and intercepted the victim and while doing the same, robbed her of her gold along with the cash she was carrying by threatening her with a knife. The evidence with the victim, her husband, and the car used convincingly showed the appellants’ participation in the crime of robbery. In the instant case, the offence was committed at night on a public road, not a highway. As a result, the appellants' conviction was deemed to be appropriate.

In the following case, it was also observed that robbery is nothing but an aggravated form of theft or extortion. In this case, aggravation is in the use of violence, hard, death, or restraint. The court observed and ruled that the violence must be committed during the course of the theft and not after the theft has already been done. Along with this, the court also ruled that violence is not essential to be done in actuality. Attempting to commit violence is sufficient to get an offence covered under robbery.

Robbery amounts to Dacoity

In the Indian Penal Code (IPC), robbery amounts to dacoity when certain specific conditions are met. Section 391 of the IPC defines dacoity and lays out the essential elements for an act of robbery to qualify as dacoity. According to Section 391:

• Five or More Persons: Dacoity involves the participation of five or more individuals acting together. If fewer than five people are involved, it would generally be treated as a simple robbery under the IPC.
• Common Intention: All participants must share a common intention to commit robbery. This means that they must have a mutual understanding and agreement to engage in the criminal act of robbery.
• Use of Deadly Weapons: The group typically uses deadly weapons during the commission of the robbery. Deadly weapons may include firearms, sharp-edged weapons, or any other instruments capable of causing serious injury or death.

Dacoity with Murder

Section 396 of IPC provides that if anyone of five or more persons, who are conjointly committing dacoity, commits murder in so committing dacoity, every one of those persons shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, or rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

In providing this Section the object the Legislature seems to be that the penalty of death or imprisonment for life may be inflicted on a person convicted of taking part in a dacoity in the course of which a murder is committed, even though there is nothing to show that he himself committed the murder or that he abetted it.

Section 396 declares that the liability of other persons is co-extensive with that of the actual murderer, and, for this purpose, all that is required to be proved is that they should have been "conjointly committing" the dacoity and any death caused by a dacoit in the course of the dacoity would be murder, and is attributed to all of them. The death need not be proved against anyone of the dacoits in particular so long as death is the result of the cumulative effect of the violence used by the gang.

The first essence of an offence under this Section is that the dacoity is the joint act of the persons concerned, and the second essence of the offence is that the murder is committed in the course of the commission of the dacoity in question.