Criminal Conspiracy

When two 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 act besides the agreement is done by one or more parties to such agreement in pursuance thereof.

Explanation - It is immaterial whether the illegal act is the ultimate object of such agreement, or is merely incidental to that object.

Criminal conspiracy is an offence under IPC which concerns the common agreement of two or persons to commit an offence. It can be analysed and understood as follows- 

1) Number of persons

Involvement of two or persons is the key element of criminal conspiracy. Such involvement includes both active involvement and otherwise. For example, If A and B conspire to kill C by shooting him, both will be held liable irrespective of the fact who shot him. Both the parties must be natural persons. So, if the director of a one-person company commits any offence, it cannot be said that the director and company have conspired to commit the said act. The reason being that the company is not a natural person even though it is a separate legal entity. 

2) Agreement

The agreement may express or implied. The offence is committed as soon as the agreement is made. That is, even if no active step is taken in pursuance of the agreement, merely forming the agreement will give rise to liability under this offence. In the case of Major E.G. Barsay v. The State of Bombay 1962, it was held by the Supreme Court that the parties to agreement are liable as soon as the agreement is made and even if such illegal act has not been done. It is pertinent to note that this provision does not take consider a common intention to be an agreement. This means that to constitute criminal conspiracy there must an agreement between the parties and mere intention is not enough. For example, if both A and B wish to murder C, it won’t amount to criminal conspiracy unless they both agree with each other or plot the murder. 

3) Illegal Act

The agreement must be do an act which is either forbidden by law or opposed to law. Further, illegal act may or may not be the ultimate object of the agreement. Even if the illegal act is only an element of the agreement and not the object of it, the agreement will still give rise to liability under criminal conspiracy. 

4) Illegal means

If any legal act is done by illegal means by two or more persons, such an act shall also amount to criminal conspiracy. The proviso to the section states that an agreement and such agreement alone between parties to do any act considered as an offence under the code will amount to criminal conspiracy. This stands even if there is no overt act in pursuance thereof. However, for any illegal act not being an offence, an overt act is required to establish the criminal conspiracy. 

Proof of Criminal Conspiracy

Since the offence of criminal conspiracy arises right when the joint evil intent of conspirators arises, to hold liability, this intention is to be proved. Intention being the work of mental faculty, it is practically difficult to prove when or what intention is formulated. Thus, mostly every case relies on circumstantial evidence to prove criminal conspiracy.  

In Bimbdhar Pradhan vs the State of Orissa (1956), the Supreme Court of India held that a single person being a part to criminal conspiracy can also be convicted if the other parties have absconded or are not found.  This means that though commission of criminal conspiracy requires more than one person, the conviction does not. For an offence to come under this section, meeting of minds is essential. Special reference should be drawn to the recent judgement in Parveen v. State of Haryana (2021), wherein the accused persons (4 in number) tried to escape the custody during which one of the accused allegedly shot a police man. All but one escaped the custody. Here, the accused who was apprehended was finally acquitted by Supreme Court on the ground that meeting of minds of all four of them could not be established. Though the four of them may have tried to escape the custody, meeting of mind for shooting the policeman could not established. A result, there was no offence under Section 120 B of IPC. 

Punishment for Criminal conspiracy- 

Where the criminal conspiracy is to commit a serious offence: In cases where the conspiracy is to commit an offence Punishable with death, Imprisonment for life or Rigorous imprisonment for a term of two years or upwards and where no express punishment is provided under the Code for such conspiracy, every person who is a party to such a criminal conspiracy shall be punished in the same manner as if he had abetted such offence. Criminal conspiracy to commit offences other than those covered above: Whoever is a party to such a criminal conspiracy shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding six months or with fine or with both.