Section 140 punishes kidnapping or abduction committed for four distinct aggravating purposes: to murder or endanger with murder, for ransom or compulsion of governments or others, to secretly and wrongfully confine, and to subject a person to grievous hurt, slavery, or unnatural lust.
Verified against the National Crime Records Bureau's official BNS–IPC concordance (Sankalan Portal), which maps each sub-section of Section 140 to a separate old IPC section, and cross-checked directly against the bare text of all four.
| BNS item | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 140(1) | 364 | Exact |
| 140(2) | 364A | Exact |
| 140(3) | 365 | Exact |
| 140(4) | 367 | Exact |
Comparing each sub-section word for word, including sub-section (1)'s two statutory illustrations, Section 140 folds four previously separate IPC sections into a single section with four sub-sections, but reproduces the operative text and punishment of each without any substantive change.
(1) Whoever kidnaps or abducts any person in order that such person may be murdered or may be so disposed of as to be put in danger of being murdered, shall be punished with imprisonment for life or rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Illustrations.
(a) A kidnaps Z from India, intending or knowing it to be likely that Z may be sacrificed to an idol. A has committed the offence defined in this section.
(b) A forcibly carries or entices B away from his home in order that B may be murdered. A has committed the offence defined in this section.
(2) Whoever kidnaps or abducts any person or keeps a person in detention after such kidnapping or abduction, and threatens to cause death or hurt to such person, or by his conduct gives rise to a reasonable apprehension that such person may be put to death or hurt, or causes hurt or death to such person in order to compel the Government or any foreign State or international inter-governmental organisation or any other person to do or abstain from doing any act or to pay a ransom, shall be punishable with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.
(3) Whoever kidnaps or abducts any person with intent to cause that person to be secretly and wrongfully confined, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.
(4) Whoever kidnaps or abducts any person in order that such person may be subjected, or may be so disposed of as to be put in danger of being subjected to grievous hurt, or slavery, or to the unnatural lust of any person, or knowing it to be likely that such person will be so subjected or disposed of, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Source: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act No. 45 of 2023), as published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.
This sub-section punishes kidnapping or abduction carried out with the purpose that the victim be murdered, or be put in danger of being murdered — it applies even where the murder itself does not take place, so long as the kidnapping or abduction was done for that purpose or created that danger.
This sub-section covers the classic ransom-kidnapping scenario: kidnapping, abducting, or detaining a person, coupled with threats of death or hurt (or conduct creating a reasonable apprehension of it, or actual hurt or death), aimed at compelling a government, foreign State, international organisation, or any other person to act, abstain from acting, or pay a ransom. It carries the most severe punishment in this section, up to death.
This sub-section punishes kidnapping or abduction carried out with the specific intent that the victim be secretly and wrongfully confined — the secrecy of the confinement is a defining feature, distinguishing this from an open wrongful confinement.
This sub-section covers kidnapping or abduction carried out in order that the victim be subjected to grievous hurt, slavery, or the unnatural lust of any person, or with knowledge that such subjection is likely — it does not require that the victim actually be subjected to these harms, only that the kidnapping or abduction was done for that purpose or with that knowledge.
This judgment relates to Section 140 as a whole rather than to one specific sub-section, and so is presented together here rather than alongside a particular clause above.
An eighteen-year-old boy was taken away and assaulted by friends he trusted, who left him with burn injuries and a ligature mark on his neck after trying to strangle and burn his body. The trial court and High Court had convicted the accused of kidnapping for ransom, but the Supreme Court found the prosecution had proved abduction and attempted murder, not any actual demand for ransom — so the ransom-specific offence was not made out on the facts, even though a serious kidnapping/abduction offence plainly was. The conviction was converted to the offence of abduction in order to murder instead. The passage above marks the dividing line this section's sub-section (2) counterpart draws: a ransom demand coupled with a threat to life is what turns a kidnapping into this more serious offence, and without proof of that demand, the case falls to a lesser (though still grave) kidnapping/abduction offence instead.
Currency check: decided 3 January 2024; no overruling or contrary larger-bench ruling found as of the date this page was last reviewed.
No. It covers compelling the Government, a foreign State, an international inter-governmental organisation, or any other person to do or abstain from doing any act, in addition to demands to pay a ransom.
Sub-section (3) specifically requires intent that the confinement following the kidnapping or abduction be secret, in addition to being wrongful — ordinary wrongful confinement under Section 127 does not require secrecy.
No. It is enough that the kidnapping or abduction was carried out in order that the victim be subjected to grievous hurt, slavery, or unnatural lust, or with knowledge that this was likely — the harm itself need not occur for the offence to be complete.