The Supreme Court has held that possession and display of a deadly weapon to strike terror in the hearts of victims is essential to convict a person of dacoity with intention to murder.
A Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah was interpreting Section 397 (robbery/dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the IPC.
The judgment pertained to an appeal filed by a man who claimed he did not have a deadly weapon in his hands during an attempted robbery.
Section 397 is a heinous offence and attracts punishment of not less than seven years.
In his judgment for the Bench, setting aside the charge of Section 397 against the man, Justice Shah observed that a person is not an offender under the provision unless he or she uses a deadly weapon.
Secondly, to meet the requirements of the provision, the victim should have noticed the weapon and been terrified of the possibility that it would be used on him or her.
“When the offence of robbery is committed by an offender being armed with a deadly weapon which was within the vision of the victim so as to be capable of creating a terror in his mind, the offender must be deemed to have used that deadly weapon in the commission of the robbery.”
The court clarified that an accused who has not used any deadly weapon at the time of committing robbery cannot be convicted under Section 397 IPC.
“The term ‘offender’ is confined to the offender who uses any deadly weapon to attract Section 397 IPC,” Justice Shah said.
Section 397 IPC is attracted only against the particular accused who uses the deadly weapon or does any of the acts mentioned in the provision. The other accused persons are not vicariously liable under that Section for acts of the co-accused, the court noted.
It said dacoity is an ‘exaggerated’ robbery. To make a robbery a dacoity, the number of persons committing the crime should be five or more.
“Only in a case where five or more than five persons commit or attempt to commit a robbery it would be dacoity. It is submitted that it is more of an aggravated form of robbery and generally the robber is armed with deadly weapons,” the judgment said.
