Criminal Conspiracy

Criminal Conspiracy: -
An agreement between two or more persons to engage jointly in an unlawful

or criminal act, or an act that is innocent in itself but becomes unlawful when
done by a combination of actors. A conspiracy may exist when parties use legal
means to accomplish illegal result or to use illegal means to achieve something
is lawful in itself. To prove a conspiracy those involved must have agreed to the
plan before all the actions have been taken or it is just the series of
independent illegal acts.
Criminal conspiracy is defined under Section 120A of Indian Penal Code 1860,
which states: -
S. 120A - When to or more persons agree to do, or cause to be done,
1. An illegal act, or
2. An act which is not illegal by illegal means, such an agreement is
designated a criminal conspiracy,
Provided that no agreement except an agreement to commit an
offence shall amount to a criminal conspiracy unless some acts besides
the agreement is done by one or more parties to such agreement in
pursuance thereof.
This section has introduced into a criminal law of India a new offence
namely the offence of criminal conspiracy. It came into existence by
Criminal Law Act 1913. Offence of criminal conspiracy is an exception to
the general law where intent alone does not constitute crime. It is
intention to commit crime and joining hands with persons having the
same intention.1
The objective behind the offence is to punish the offender at the stage
of agreement for commission of crime. By this way this offence can be
justified on an ancient saying that “Prevention is better than cure”.
Ingredients: - The ingredients of this offence are: -
 There must be an agreement between the persons who are alleged to
conspire;
 That the agreement should be for doing of an illegal act, or
 For doing by illegal means an act which may not itself be illegal 2
1
Superintendent of Police, CBI/SIT vs Nalini and others, 1999
2
Yogesh vs State of Maharashtra AIR 2008 SC and Raja vs State of Tamil Nadu 2010
Elements of Criminal Conspiracy: -
a) an object to be accomplished,
b) a plan or scheme embodying means to accomplish that
object,
c) an agreement or understanding between two or more of
the accused persons whereby, they become definitely
committed to cooperate for the accomplishment of the
object by the means embodied in the arguments or by any
effectual means,
Agreement between two or more persons: -

to constitute the offence of conspiracy there must be an agreement of
two or more persons to do an act which is illegal or which is to be done
by illegal means for one cannot conspire with oneself. In “Topandas vs
State of Bombay 1955” it was laid down by Supreme Court that,” two or
more persons will parties to such an agreement and one person can
never be held guilty of the criminal conspiracy for the simple reason that
one cannot conspire with oneself.”
The question of single person being convicted for an offence of
conspiracy was considered in “Bimbadhar Pradhan vs The State of
Orissa AIR 1956”
Supreme Court held that it is not essential that more than one person
shall be convicted to the offence of criminal conspiracy.
Doing of an Illegal Act: -

For the offence of conspiracy, it is necessary that the agreement shall
be in respect of the illegal act. Mere agreement to do an illegal act
amounts to the offence of conspiracy, it is not necessary that the illegal
act for doing of which an agreement was made is committed. It means
ordinary agreement which is not made for the commission of an illegal
act cannot be an offence of conspiracy.
Doing a legal act with illegal means: -

Section 120(A) provides that the offence of conspiracy will be
constituted by those agreement which are made for doing of legal act
with the illegal means. Thus, in this clause mere agreement is not made
punishable because that is for doing of the legal act, unless it is shown
that the legal act was intended to be done by illegal means.
Punishment of criminal conspiracy
Section 120 (B)
Section 120(B)-
(1) Whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence
punishable with death, imprisonment for life or rigorous
imprisonment for a term of two years or upwards, shall, where no
express provision is made in this Code for the punishment of such a
conspiracy, be punished in the same manner as if he had abetted
such offence.
(2) Whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy other than a criminal
conspiracy to commit an offence punishable as aforesaid shall be
punished with imprisonment of either description for a term not
exceeding six months, or with fine or with both.
Conspiracy to commit an offence is in itself an offence and a person can

be separately charged with respect to such a conspiracy. There may be
an element of abetment in a conspiracy but conspiracy is something
more than abetment. The offences created by S. 109 and S. 120(A) are
quite distinct and where offences are committed by several persons in
pursuance of a conspiracy it is usual to charge them with those offences
as well as conspiracy to commit those offences.3
This section applies to those who are the members of the conspiracy
during its continuance. Conspiracy has to be treated as a continuing
offence and whoever is a party to the conspiracy during that period for
which he is liable shall be charged under this section.4
The most important ingredient for a criminal conspiracy is an agreement
for an illegal act, conspiracy continues to subsist till it is executed or
rescinded or frustrated by choice or necessity5
For the purpose of proving the charge for conspiracy, it is not necessary
that there should be knowledge that who are other conspirators and of
3
Jagdish Prasad vs. State of Bihar, 1990 conspiracy with railway employees to procure allotments of wagons
undercovers of fake letters.
4
Darshan Singh vs State of Punjab AIR 1983, Supreme court considered it to be unbelievable that the accused
hatched their plot while taking drinks in the presence of a stranger.
5
Damodar vs. State of Rajasthan 2004
the detailed stages of the conspiracy. The necessary requisite is the
knowledge of the main object and purpose of the conspiracy. 6
Sanction for prosecution (S. 120B I.P.C and

196 Cr. Pc): -
This section has to be read along with Section 196 of the Cr. Pc which
requires pervious sanction of the state government or the District
Magistrate to launch prosecution in respect of a criminal conspiracy to
commit an offence punishable with less than 2 years imprisonment.
thus, where the object of conspiracy was cheating by false personation
under Section 419 IPC which is an offence punishable with 3 years’
imprisonment the mere fact that there were other non-cognizable
offences for which to the accuses has been charged would not vitiate
the trial in absence of sanction under Section 196(1A) (2) Cr. Pc as that
section is meant to be applicable to a case where the object of
conspiracy is to punish an offence punishable with less than 2 years
imprisonment.7
Can a company be prosecuted for Criminal Conspiracy?

a corporation is in the same position as any individual and may be
convicted to common law as well as statutory offences including those
requiring men’s rea. The criminal liability of a corporation arises when a
offence is committed in relation to the business of a corporation by
persons or by the body of persons in control of its affairs
in such circumstances it would be necessary to ascertain that the degree
and control of a person or body of persons is so intense that a
corporation may be said to think and act through that a corporation may
be said to think and act through that persons or the body of the
persons.8
6
Mohd. Amin vs CBI 2008 SCC49
7
Vinod Kumar Jain vs state through CBI 1991 conspiracy being a mixed transaction, may involve several
offences e.g. bribing the person to enable the accused to commit the main act.
8
N.V Subba Rao vs State 2013
Hooch Tragedy Case: -
Allegations is that all the accused persons hatched as criminal conspiracy

and they created a well-oiled machinery for importing methyl alcohol to
make spurious liquor. Accused diluted it by mixing water and sold it
through their outlets. Many persons died due to the consumption of the
spurious liquor. Some persons lot their sights and come suffered from
grievous injuries. Supreme court said that the whole business in itself
was a conspiracy. It may not be the conspiracy to mix the noxious
substance but the fact of the matter is that in order to succeed in the
business, which itself was a conspiracy, they mixed or allowed to be
mixed methanol and used it so freely that ultimately resulted in the
tragedy.
Conviction was upheld.9
Sentence: -
Where the accused is charged both under S. 109 as well as S. 120B IPC and the
offence abetted is shown to have been committed as a result of the abetment,
the abettor should be punished with the imprisonment provided for the
principle offence. Under Sec 109 of IPC and no separate sentence need to be
recorded under Sec 120(B) IPC10
where the charge of conspiracy fails the individual accused could still be
convicted for the offences committed by them and sentenced accordingly 11.
9
Chandran vs. State AIR 2011 SC 1594
10
State of Tamil Nadu vs Savithri 1976
11
State of Orissa vs Bishnu Charan Muduili 1985

Criminal Conspiracy

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Criminal Conspiracy

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Criminal Conspiracy: -

An agreement between two or more persons to engage jointly in an unlawful

Agreement between two or more persons: -

Doing of an Illegal Act: -

Doing a legal act with illegal means: -

Conspiracy to commit an offence is in itself an offence and a person can

Sanction for prosecution (S. 120B I.P.C and

Can a company be prosecuted for Criminal Conspiracy?

Allegations is that all the accused persons hatched as criminal conspiracy

You might also like