Court caseSupreme Court of India, 2009

A gang of dacoits raided a house in a village in Uttar Pradesh at night, looted property and, in the course of the dacoity, one of the inmates was killed. The accused were prosecuted for dacoity with murder under s. 396 IPC (now s. 310(3) BNS). The High Court's view on the evidence against the respondents led the State to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court applied the rule in s. 396 IPC: if any one of five or more persons who are conjointly committing dacoity commits murder in so committing it, every one of those persons is punishable with death, imprisonment for life or rigorous imprisonment up to ten years. The section is a special form of joint liability: proof that the accused was one of the dacoits and that a murder was committed by any of them in the course of the dacoity is enough; the prosecution need not show which dacoit caused the death or that the others shared an intention to kill.