Organised crime under BNS: Provisions & Cases

Authored By – Pranali Chintaman Padwe, RTMNUS Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar College of law (main branch) Nagpur Maharashtra 

INTRODUCTION

Organized crime is seen in every field of society. In the greed for wealth and power people, people stray from the path and are usually involved in illegal activities. However, some certain rules and regulations check these illegal activities. If an individual violates these rules and is involved in criminal activities intentionally, then it will be considered a crime. To commit an organised crime, several people engage in illegitimate work in a planned manner to gain profit, thus, a simple school teacher to a great businessman can form a network of organised crime.

In organised crime, like-minded people come together and give results to their illegitimate goals and earn direct or indirect Criminals usually form gangs or criminal syndicates to provide illegal services like kidnapping, smuggling, extortion, contract killing, Dacoity, Robbery,  etc., it also involved petty crime like pickpocketing, chain snatching, theft etc. In this organization, there is a head who leads all the members and earns eminence profit out of it. Organized crimes affect the peace and security of society to a very big extent; according to the report of Global organised crime index 2023 India has 61th rank out of  193 Countries in criminality score in the world; thus, to curb this problem, there are Some laws imposed by the Indian legislation, like Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act 1999 MCOCA. And Section 111and Section 112 Of  Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita which deals with organised crime directly

Keywords : Organised Crime, unlawful Activities, Curbing, legislation, Criminal syndicate

Meaning, Definition & Explanation

Organized crime – Dr. Walter Reckless defines organised crime as, “an Unlawful misadventure which is carried on by a boss his lieutenant and operators who form a hierarchical structure for a specific period.”[1]

As observed by Edwin Sutherland, “There is at least one thing common among these criminal organisations that is they are bound together and a common hostility towards law and therefore members assist and protect each other.”[2]

In simple words, when two or more person put an end to their criminal Speculative Motive in an organised manner, it is considered an organised crime. To gain eminence, wealth, and power, people indulged in criminal activities and formed an organisation of criminals where they used to commit crimes individually but in an organised manner. Specific work was assigned to the specific criminal, and they worked individually for their collective goals. And everyone will be equally guilty of the whole crime

Historical Background / Evolution

The concept of crime was involved with the time during the 12th and 13th centuries, Actions against the state or religion were considered as a crime, since with the time act against the individual also consider as a crime and like this several types of crimes evolved

Organised crime had been initiated in the USA from 1930 onwards, after the imposition of illicit liquor by the USA’s government. Initially, these people were bootleggers only but later to accumulate wealth these people involved in other illegal activities as well which led to forming gangs of criminals or syndicates of Criminals and controlling the illegal activities in a particular territory

In India, the situation behind the development and expansion of organised crime is the same as it was in the USA; the only difference is that in India, it started in the 21st century and grew rapidly across the country. There was no milestone incident which resulted in the initiation of organised crime in India. However, during the fifties prohibitions were imposed in some states of India on the production and sales of liquor which gave rise to modern organised crime, with time and profit this bootlegger put their steps into other criminal activities like smuggling and kidnapping for ransom and earn hefty amount through illegal means which motivated them to continue these illegal activities. The bootlegger already had a team of producers and distributors so they didn’t make any effort to collect the people to continue this activity as a gang of criminals, gradually all these small gangs merged and created a vast syndicate of criminals

As these syndicates are growing all over the world, As there was no law present at that time to deal with organised crime, The need for laws to curb them has arisen. There is a very famous legal maxim, “ Nullum Crimen Sine Lege”, which means If there is no law, there is no crime. Whereas, As given under, Article 19(4) of the constitution of India, the state can impose reasonable restrict on rights given under the sub-clause (c) of Section 19(1) if it’s against the sovereignty and integrity of India With the increase in the rate of organised crime, the laws against it also started developing; in 1999, the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act was implemented by the Government to overcome organised crime. In 2000, the USA also took some initiatives against organised crime; in 2000, the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, which is popularly known as the Palermo Convention, which came into force in 2003. Recently, in 2023, three New Criminal laws were introduced and come into force by Indian legislation, and one of them is Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaces the Indian Penal Code 1860. In the Indian Penal Code, there was no specific provision for organised crime but BNS has 2 specific sections i.e sections 111 and 112 to deal with organised crime

Legal Provision for Organised Crime under Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023

Section 111 and section 112 of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita deal with organised crime it defines what the term organised crime includes. And provides punishment for each type of organised crime

Section 111 – Organised Crime “(1) Any continuing unlawful activity including kidnapping, robbery, vehicle theft, extortion, land grabbing, contract killing, economic offence, cyber-crimes, trafficking of persons, drugs, weapons or illicit goods or services, human trafficking for prostitution or ransom, by any person or a group of persons acting in concert, singly or jointly, either as a member of an organised crime syndicate or on behalf of such syndicate, by use of violence, threat of violence, intimidation, coercion, or by any other unlawful means to obtain direct or indirect material benefit including a financial benefit, shall constitute organised crime.

(2) Whoever commits organised crime shall,—

(a) if such offence has resulted in the death of any person, be punished with death or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than ten lakh rupees;

(b) in any other case, be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than five lakh rupees.

(3) Whoever abets, attempts, conspires or knowingly facilitates the commission of an organised crime, or otherwise engages in any act preparatory to an organised crime, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than five lakh rupees.

(4) Any person who is a member of an organised crime syndicate shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than five lakh rupees.

(5) Whoever, intentionally, harbours or conceals any person who has committed the offence of an organised crime shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than five lakh rupees:

Provided that this sub-section shall not apply to any case in which the harbour or concealment is by the spouse of the offender.

(6) Whoever possesses any property derived or obtained from the commission of an organised crime or proceeds of any organised crime or which has been acquired through the organised crime, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than two lakh rupees.

(7) If any person on behalf of a member of an organised crime syndicate is, or at any time has been in possession of movable or immovable property which he cannot satisfactorily account for, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to imprisonment for ten years and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than one lakh rupees.”[3]

Analysis

section 111 of the BNS has defined organised crime according to the section 111 if any person or group of persons indulging in any unlawful activity singly or collectively as a member of a criminal syndicate or on that behalf, use any unlawful means for any financial or any material gain

  1. According to sub-section 1 of section 111, for organised crime there should be a group of two or more persons involved in any illegal activities
  2. Continuation of activities which are prohibited by the law, on which continuation there are restrictions imposed by the state

Ranjitsing Brahmajeetsing Sharma v. State Of Maharashtra And Anr.2005

“Any communication or association which has no nexus with the commission of organized crime would not come within the purview thereof. It must mean assistance to organised crime or organised crime syndicate or to a person involved in either of them. It, however, includes (a) communication or (b) association with any person with the actual knowledge or (c) having reason to believe that such person is engaged in assisting in any manner, an organised crime syndicate”[4]

  1. Members of the criminal syndicate are those, against whom more than one change sheet was filed within the preceding period of ten years before the competent court including economic offences.

In the landmark judgement of Supreme Court of the in the case of Zakir Abdul Mirajkar v. State of Maharashtra, 2022 “It was held by the supreme court that persons who are alleged to be members of an organized crime syndicate need not have more than one charge-sheet filed against them in an individual capacity. Rather, charge-sheets with respect to the organized crime syndicate are sufficient to fulfil the condition in Section 2(1)(d) of MCOCA 1999”. [5]

  1. Sub-section 2 Provide the punishment for each kind of organised crime, in the form death penalty or life imprisonment fine or both for the offences which resulted in the death of a person, abets or attempt to conspiracy, the person being a member of the syndicate, intentionally harbour or concealing any person, possession of property obtained from organised crime

Suraj Singh @ Noni v. State of Punjab 2024

Recently, the Punjab and Haryana High Court gave a judgement that, , “To bring an offense into the four corners of an organized crime, the offense must fall under a category described in S. 111 of BNS, 2023. The primafacie evidence must be legally admissible to constitute any continuing unlawful activity to constitute an Organized crime as defined in S. 111 BNS. Without legally admissible primafacie  evidence, the State cannot make any suspect undergo custodial interrogation to hunt for such evidence against the suspect or others”[6]

Section 112 – Petty Organised Crime – “(1) Whoever, being a member of a group or gang, either singly or jointly, commits any act of theft, snatching, cheating, unauthorised selling of tickets, unauthorised betting or gambling, selling of public examination question papers or any other similar criminal act, is said to commit petty organised crime.

(2) Whoever commits any petty organised crime shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than one year but which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.”[7]

Analysis

 Section 112 of BNS defines petty organised crime as those crimes which are not that consequential

  1. According to sub-section 1 of section 112, crimes like theft, snatching, unauthorised selling of tickets, unauthorised betting or gambling, selling public examination question papers or any other similar Criminal acts done by a group of criminals either singly or jointly, that will consider as a petty organised crime
  2. Sub-section 2 of section 112 provides punishment for petty organised crime According to sub-section 2, the person found guilty of a petty organised crime shall be punishable with imprisonment which will not less than two years and which may extend to seven years and shall be liable to fine

CONCLUSION 

Crimes are present in every time of society and the definitions of crime have been changed from society to society and the gravity of the criminal has expanded with the development of society, organised crime is the result of this same rule it developed due to prohibition imposed by the law, it started after the banned imposed on the illicit liquor by the state and its spreading its hand in every stream in the world, organised crime is not a single thread but a huge net of criminal and crime who work together with unlawful means for the sake of wealth and power

With the expansion of organised crime laws against it also started developing and in present time we have acted like MCOCA 1999, provisions like ssections111 and 112 under Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023.

 

  1. REFERENCES
  2. Books / Commentaries / Journals Referred
    • CRIMINOLOGY, PENOLOGY AND VICTIMILOGY (prof. Dr. Syed Mohammad afzal quadri 2016)
    • CRIMINOLOGY, AND PENOLOGY WITH VICTIMILOGY, (N. V. Paranjape, 2011)
    • CRIMINOLOGY, PENOLOGY AND VICTIMILOGY (Dr. Surendra Sahai Srivastav 2012)
  3. Online Articles / Sources Referred
  4. Cases Referred
    • Ranjitsing Brahmajeetsing Sharma v. State Of Maharashtra And Anr. [2005) 3 S.C.R.]
    • Zakir Abdul Mirajkar v. The State Of Maharashtra & Ors.[2022] 9 S.C.R. 150
    • Suraj Singh @ Noni v. State of Punjab 2024:PHHC:119262
  5. Statutes Referred
    • INDIA CONST. art.19 § 4
    • Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 No.45 Acts of Parliament 2023( India)

[1] CRIMINOLOGY, AND PENOLOGY WITH VICTIMILOGY, N.V PARANJAPE, 111(5th ed.2011)

[2] CRIMINOLOGY, PENOLOGY AND VICTIMILOGY, PROF.DR. SYED MOHAMMAD AFZAL QUADRI 5 (7th ed.2016)

[3] Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, §111 No.45 Act Of Parliament 2023(India)

[4] Ranjitsing Brahmajeetsing Sharma v. State Of Maharashtra And Anr.(2005) 3 S.C.R.

[5]  Zakir Abdul Mirajkar v. The State Of Maharashtra & Ors.(2022) 9 S.C.R. 150

[6] Suraj Singh @ Noni v. State of Punjab (2024)PHHC,119262

[7] Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023,§112 No 45 Act Of Parliament 2023(India)

Share this :
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Author picture