Indian Penal Code

Criminal Conspiracy

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Section 120A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 states: “when two or more persons agree to do, or cause to be done, an illegal act, or 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.
Generally, the accused is charged with the offence of criminal conspiracy along with the charge of some other substantive offence under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 or any other law.
Chapter V-A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 as inserted in 1913 deals with the offence of criminal conspiracy.

There must be at least two persons who conspire.
Joint evil intent to do an illegal act or an act that is not illegal by illegal means is necessary.
The agreement may be expressed or implied or partly expressed and partly implied.
As soon as the agreement is made, the conspiracy arises, and the offence is committed.
The same offence is continued to be committed so long as the combination persists.

The offence of criminal conspiracy can be proved by either direct or circumstantial evidence.
A conspiracy is usually hatched in a secret and private setting which is why it is almost impossible to produce any affirmative evidence about the date of the formation of the criminal conspiracy, the persons involved in it, or the object of such conspiracy, or how such object is to be carried out.
It was believed that agreement or meeting of minds is one of the main evidence to prove the conspiracy under this section and also it is one of the hardest one to prove because as we know the fact that offender by himself does not agree to a fact that he is involved with someone.
It is only a matter of circumstances that one can prove that there is a meeting of minds or an agreement between those two. Hence, criminal conspiracy is based on circumstantial evidence as in most cases there is no direct evidence to prove the same.
There is no conspiracy between husband and wife because they are considered as the one person.

Section 120B of Indian Penal Code, 1860 provides that “whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or rigorous imprisonment for a term of two years or upwards, shall, where no express provision is made in this code for the punishment of such a conspiracy, be punished in the same manner as if he had abetted such offence”.
Whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy other than a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable as aforesaid shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding six months, or with fine or with both.

Kehar Singh and others v. State (Delhi Administration) (1988):
- The Supreme Court, in this case, has held that the most important ingredient of the offence of conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to do an illegal act.
- Such an illegal act may or may not be done in pursuance of the agreement, but the very agreement is an offence and is punishable.
Major E.G. Barsay v. The State of Bombay (1962):
- The Supreme Court held that an agreement to break the law constitutes the gist of the offence of criminal conspiracy under Section 120A of Indian Penal Code,1860.
- The parties to such an agreement are guilty of criminal conspiracy even if the illegal act agreed to be done by them has not been done. The court also held that it is not an ingredient of the offence of criminal conspiracy that all the parties should agree to do a single illegal act and a conspiracy may comprise the commission of several acts.
Ram Narain Popli v. C.B.I. (2003):
- In this case, the Supreme Court held that mere proof of the agreement between two or more persons to do an unlawful act or an act by unlawful means is enough to convict the parties for criminal conspiracy under Section 120B.