Penal Liability Not Attracted If A Person Harbours Dacoits In General And Has No Knowledge Of A Particular Dacoity

In C.R.A. 693 of 2017, Gopal Sarkar Vs. State of West Bengal, one of primary grounds for the conviction of the appellant as raised by the state was that the Appellant was a relative of one of the principal accused (Milan) in the case who had committed a number of dacoities while staying at the Appellant.

Discarding the State’s arguments, the division bench noted that these pieces of evidence onlshowed a close family relationship between the Appellant and the other co-accused and the same did not reflect existence of a criminal conspiracy.

The bench observed that mere association with the accused persons owing to family connection cannot give rise to an inference of meeting of minds between the appellant on the one hand and other accused persons on the other hand to commit the dacoity.

There was no evidence on record that the appellant was aware that the others were planning to commit dacoity in the convent. Raucous and unbridled behaviour of the accused persons during marriage or their expensive habits without anything more would not create an irresistible inference in the mind of a reasonable man of ordinary prudence that they were planning to commit dacoity in the convent.

Based on the above issues, the bench finally decided that penal liability would not be attracted if a person harbours dacoits in general and it must be proved that he had harboured such dacoits who intended to commit a ‘particular dacoity’.

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