What is the Punishment for Abduction in India?

Section 362 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 – Abduction:

Whoever by force compels or by deceitful means induces, any person to go from any place, is said to abduct that person.

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Scope:

Abduction is not an act which is in itself an offence. It is a means of subsidiary act. It is an offence only when done with a certain intention as is laid down under Sections 364, 365 and 366. Abduction is an auxiliary act and not punishable by itself.

Ingredients:

The following essentials are required to constitute abduction—

(1) Forcible compulsion or inducement by deceitful means, and

(2) The object of such compulsion or inducement must be the going of a person from any place.

(1) Forcible compulsion or inducement:

There are two alternative conditions under which any offence of abduction could be made out. While one of them is when a person is compelled to go from a place by force, the other alternative is when a person is induced by deceitful means to go from one place to another. The accused cannot be convicted for abduction if no force or deceit is practised by the accused on the person abducted.

To induce “means” to lead into. It connotes a leading of a woman in some direction in which she would not otherwise have gone. There must be a change of mind caused by an external pressure of some kind.

The expression deceitful is wide enough to include the inducing of a girl to leave her guardian’s house on a pretext and the fact that the promise held out to her is fulfilled makes no difference. Deceit signifies anything intended to mislead another. It is, really speaking; a matter of intention and the question is whether the accused is acting in a bona fide manner when he is extending certain promises to a woman inducing her to accompany him.

In the case of an offence defined in Section 362, no question arises as to whether there was consent or absence of consent. It is enough if by deceitful means a person is induced to go from any place.

(2) To go from any place:

In either case all that is required to constitute abduction is that the person abducted must have gone from any place. Where there is no evidence that the accused had employed either force or had induced the girl by deceitful means to go from her place to another places but she accompanies of her own free will, the accused cannot be said to have committed an offence of abduction under Section 366, I.P.C. Where girl was found to have gone with the accused of her free will and with consent of her mother, and there was no proof that she was taken by accused to seduce her to illicit intercourse, accused was held not guilty under Section 366, I.P.C.

In a latest case of Rabi Narayandas v. State, the High Court found the accused guilty of Section 366 of I.P.C. A blind girl who was going to school, was taken by the accused to the premises of Secretariat. The accused raped the girl. It was not proved whether rape was with the consent of girl or without her consent. The Court convicted accused under Section 366 of I.P.C.

Abduction by itself is not punishable. It becomes so when done with intent to murder or cause secret or wrongful confinement or seduction for illicit intercourse or marriage against the will of abductee.

Kidnapping and abduction —comparison:

Kidnapping and abduction are separate offences differing from one another in various respects. Abduction is a continuing offence whereas kidnapping is not so.

In the offence of kidnapping, the consent of the person removed is immaterial. But in case of abduction, free and voluntary consent of the person abducted, is a good defence.

A person cannot be convicted of an offence of abduction when he is tried on a charge of kidnapping, unless a fresh charge is framed.