Dacoity And Its Legal Approach

Dacoity In Indian Tradition With Special Reference To Chambal

Legal And Emotional Approach Of The Topic

In Hindu Scriptures, From The Time Of Mahabharat The River Of Chambal Is Cursed, It Has Thousands Of "Ghariyal" And "Crocodiles"In Its lap.

There Was A Time When The Badlands of chambal Were Full Of Peace And Terror.

It Is Very Difficult To Imagine About The Beginning Of This Custom Which Was Called "Daka" And Later "Dacoity". Many People From Locality Deny The Existence Of Any Such Thing In Their Area, But Still A Huge Number Of Population Has Sympathy As Well As Respect For Their 

"Baaghis"

Dacoity According To IPC

Section 391 Of IPC : When five or more persons conjointly 

commit or attempt to commit a robbery, or 

where the whole number of persons 

conjointly committing or attempting to 

commit a robbery, and persons present and 

aiding such commission or attempt, amount 

to five or more, every person so committing, 

attempting or aiding, is said to commit 

"dacoity".

Punishment

Whoever commits dacoity shall be punished 

with imprisonment for life, or with rigorous 

imprisonment for a term which may extend 

to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

Other Sections Related to Dacoity

• 396 Dacoity with murder.

• 397 Robbery, or dacoity, with attempt 

to cause death or grievous hurt.

• 399 Making preparation to commit 

dacoity.

• 216A Penalty for harbouring robbers or 

dacoits.

• 412 Dishonestly receiving property stolen in the 

commission of a dacoity.

Nature Of Offence

Simply A Robbery is dacoity, if the persons committing robbery are five or more in number.

It is done by Armed People More than 5 in number

Section 34 IPC states that - where an act is done by the several persons in furtherance of common intention of all, each of them would be liable for that act in the same manner as it is done by him alone.

This Act Has Been In Practice From 12th Century To The Best Of My Knowledge, And An Incident That Took Place During The Rule Of Akbar In 15th Century (Given Separately) Gives Clarification Of This Offence Being At least 600 Years old And Was Started In Region Of Bengal Just Like Thuggee

But The Act Of Dacoity Which Was Done By Dacoits Or Baaghis Of Chambal Is Different In Nature.

One Of Most Feard And Respected Baaghi Of His Time Malkhan Singh Who Lives In Gwalior City Has His Own Sad Story Behind The Rebellion.

The Way Generally They Committed The Act Was Stopping The Bus Or Trucks At Night pretending to be Traveler Or being in  Appearance Of A Saadhu Or Maulana And Asking For Lift, After Sometime Showing Guns And Forcing Driver To Take The Truck or bus to their Base.

In Old Days Baaghi like maan singh simply used To Hire People Who Informed Him About The Marriages and Functions in Village where they Generally in Number of 20-50 Used To Commit this Offence

In Their Point Of View The Act Of Dacoity Was Just A Source Of Income Or Resources For Them, They Were Not Living In Badlands Of Chambal For Dacoity Specifically.

They Still Do Not Consider Themselves As Dacoit, But This Is No Justification For The Crime They Have Committed, They Were Mostly Killed Illegally Without Any Warrant Or Arrested And After A Particular Time They Were Released With Their Name and Identity Changed.

You Can Understand From The Given Discussion That How Difficult It is to judge the actual nature of crime According To Principles.

But The Question Arise That When They Were Aware Of Sections and Criminality Of Dacoity, Why They Still Joined Gang Of Dacoits? It Is An Crime And Its Conclusion Is Best Known To Them Too.... That Is Why There Is Nothing Wrong In Punishing Them Legally.

Why Dacoits of chambal are different From Other Dacoits?

As Per My Personal Observation And Several Other Sources And As Mentioned Above, The Dacoits Of Chambal Never Considered Themselves As Dacoits, But Instead They Were Generally Called "Baaghi"

An Interesting Fact about Them Is That They Had An Criteria For Admission In Their Gang.  Baaghi Like Ramesh Singh Sikarwar Had Set A Criteria That Any Person Who Looks Forward To Join Their Gang Must Have Committed At Least A Murder, Because Many Times Spies Of Police Joined Their Gang, But Now When The Criteria Is There, No Police Officer Will Fulfill that, In Many Cases People Who Joined Gangs Were Either Known To Them Or Recommended By Someone.

Many Gangs Like The Gang Of Gabbar Singh Only Admitted Those Who Left The House due to Property Dispute.

Such Things Are Not Seen In Any Gang Of Dacoits In Any Country Or State of india.

Things Get more Complicated For Law Because The Dacoits Of Chambal Were Doing It As An Custom Or Part Of Their Religious Beliefs, Even Muslim Gangs (Bundelkhand Had Only 3% Muslim Population That Time Possibly) Were There Against Them Too.

These Gangs Were Mostly based on caste System

Like. Mallah Gang, Jaat Gang, Gujjar Gang etc

Another Problem For Law Here Is That There Are Numbers of Illegal Encounters Which Took Place In Chambal By Police Officers, Many Intellectuals Consider This To Be Condition Of "Dacoits From Both Side"

Even Police Authority That Time Believed In Caste System and Choose Target According To Caste or Personal hatred (This Info is not accurate as I've heard it from people only, but Possible) 

It Is Basic Principle That When Government Fails To Provide Hope And Resources To People, They Do Rebellion... Rebellion Is An Act Against State. But Many Baaghi like Paan Singh Tomer Who Served In Army For Nation, Joining The Gang Of Dacoits?? Can This Be Called Failure Of Public Authority Or Government That Time? Baaghi Like Malkhan Singh And Others Became Baaghi Because Of Property Dispute Etc, Many Were Frustrated From Emergency Imposed By Government And Birth Control Mission Where male vasectomy took place... Even Osho Once Wrote A Poem On Similarities Between Baaghi and Politicians of that time

Now It Looks Quite Difficult To Solve This Problem... Although Under Leadership Of CM Arjun Singh That Time A Huge Number Of Baaghi Surrendered To Govt., it Was An Significant Achievement For Him. And The Rebellion In Badlands Of Chambal Came To Full Stop Politically, Religiously and Personally

Brief History Of Dacoity In India

Dacoity Was Not Only An Problem In India But On International Level Too, In Italy, America And Brazil It Was One Of Most Common Crime In 16-18 Century

Many Pilgrims Who Visited India Mentioned About The Act Of Dacoity Against Them, In 15th century Akbar Hanged 500 Dacoits

Billy The Kid ( I Will Write An Separate Article On Him) Was Extremely Famous Dacoit Of His Time In America, Once A Man Bought An Random Picture On Road... Later He Found That he has Bought an only known picture of Billy the kid, later He Sold That Picture In Millions.

Jesse James Is An Popular Name Worldwide.

Just Like Thuggee, The Act Of Dacoity Started In Early 12th Century Or Before That, But It Was Recorded In Later Period. Thugs and Dacoits were Found In Every State Of India 

The Original Problem Existed For British, Because Whether Dacoits Were Criminals But They Were Victim Of British Cruelty Too And Looted Many British Resources, With Due Respect One Of My Ideal Ram Prasda Bismil Was Part Of "Kakori Kaand". 

Shibpur Political Action (Dacoity) Case, 1915

Shibpur Political Action (Dacoity) Case of 1915 was a brave attempt of dacoity only meant to collect funds for the armed revolutionary activities against the British Raaj. The ‘dacoity’, as termed by the British or ‘political action’ as called by the revolutionaries, was carried out successfully by a group of young Indian patriots and most of them were college students from Bhadralok Bengali families in a village namely Shibpur of undivided Bengal.

From 18th Century Dacoity And Thuggee Became More Than Crime But Sometimes Attempt To Revolt Against Britain. When The Act Of Thuggee and Dacoity was Done Against Indians British Raaj Took No Big Action, But When it became An Headache for them too they enacted many Strict laws such as

• Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, 1836–48

• IPC Section 391

And It Came To End By Late 19th Century.

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But Suddenly After Independence From British In 1960 To 1980 The Dacoity Started Again! But Why After Independence?, Some Consider It To Be Rebellion Against The Wrong That Happened To Them and Some Consider this to be an crime done Under influence of lust.

Seriousness of the offense

According To Ramesh Singh Sikarwar He Himself Killed 27 People In Just One Night Due To "Mukhbari", And There Is No Number Of How many Murders he has Committed From His Side, He Was Part Of Nearly 100s Of Dacoity

Malkhan singh Killed Many Of His Enemy as Well As Part Of Dacoity.

 

Phulan Devi Was Held Liable For 22 Murders, And Other Offence Like Kidnapping, Dacoity Etc

Maan Singh was accused of about 112 dacoities, 185 murders. The police of four states had been following him for more than 15 years.

Mohar Singh Was Accused Of nearly 400 Cases Among Them nearly 90 were about Murders. 

One Of Last Baaghi Of Chambal Was Nirbhay Gujjar Who Was Part Of 205 criminal cases of murder, dacoity, kidnapping

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The Badlands Of Chambal Is Again Under Peace But Not Completely.

In End I repeat the words of an Pundit Ji From Chambal "There Are No Dacoits here now, Its All Peace"

- Anmol Vyas