Offences against property

A phone vanishes from a table at a Dadar tea stall. Another is pulled out of a commuter's hand from a passing scooter. A third is handed over when a man in a lane says he will hurt you if you do not. A fourth is given willingly to a friend who promised to return it and sells it instead. The phone is gone every time, yet the law names four different offences, with different ingredients and punishments. Chapter XVII of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita exists to sort out exactly this, and the question is always how the property left the owner's hands.

In two minutes

BNS Chapter XVII (ss.303–334, old IPC ss.378–462) classifies property offences by how the property was obtained: theft by taking, extortion by fear, robbery and dacoity by violence, misappropriation and breach of trust by abuse of possession or trust, cheating by deceit, then mischief and trespass.

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