Criminal Conspiracy

Three friends sit in a canteen and agree to sneak into the college office at night and change their marks. They have bought nothing, gone nowhere and done nothing yet. Have they committed a crime? Ordinarily the law waits for an act. But for agreements to commit offences, the Sanhita does not wait, because a plan made by several people is more dangerous than the idea of one. Where does it draw the line, and why is an agreement itself punishable?

In two minutes

A criminal conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons with the common object of doing, or causing to be done, an illegal act or a legal act by illegal means (BNS s.61(1)); a bare agreement to commit an offence is enough, but any other agreement needs an overt act.

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