Indian Penal Code, 1860
Section 396
repealedDacoity with murder
If any one of five or more persons, who are conjointly committing dacoity, commits murder in so committing dacoity, every one of those persons shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, or rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Why this exists
This section reflects the principle that when a group deliberately commits a violent crime like dacoity together, all members share responsibility if the crime escalates to murder, even if only one of them actually killed the victim. The law treats the entire group as bound by the shared risk of extreme violence they created by jointly committing dacoity, and allows the harshest punishments, including death, for every participant. A comparably severe provision for murder during group robbery continues under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which replaced the Indian Penal Code in 2024.