Extortion

Meaning of Extortion

Extortion is an offence or a crime which is done intentionally by a person by threatening or putting someone in a fearful situation to take away any valuable document or property. It can also be done in the form of physical violence causing grievous harm to an individual. The harm can also be through financial loss and mental suffering. In short, extortion can be briefly explained as fearing someone to obtain something from a person to obtain possession of their belongings.

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This Story also Contains

1. Meaning of Extortion
2. Essentials of Extortion
3. Extortion Case Laws
4. Extortion to Theft
5. Extortion to Robbery
6. Extortion to Dacoity
7. Differentiation between Extortion, Theft, Robbery and Dacoity
8. Types of Extortion
9. Extortion in IPC
10. What is Cyber extortion?
11. Other Forms of Extortion

According to Section 383 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, extortion can be precisely defined as, “When someone intentionally puts any person in fear of any hurt to that person, or any other person and thereby, deceitfully induces the person so put in fear to hand over that person’s property, or any valuable security or anything signed and sealed which may be changed into a valuable asset commit, extortion.” Therefore, extortion can be simply quoted as wrongfully acquiring someone else’s property by forcing or threatening them.

Currently. Section 306 of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, extortion can be defined as “Whoever intentionally puts any person in fear of any injury to that person, or to any other, and thereby dishonestly induces the person so put in fear to deliver to any person any property, or valuable security or anything signed or sealed which may be converted into a valuable security, commits ‘extortion’”.

For example, a person ‘x’ threatens ‘y’ to give his car keys to him otherwise he’ll kidnap his two-year-old son. Here in this scenario, ‘x’ is liable for extortion.

Essentials of Extortion

1. Deliberately causing hurt or injury to a person by fearing them. A person should have a ‘mala fide’ intention to cause harm to the opposite party. There should be a valid loss of the owner of the property and the demanded commodity should be duly delivered to the extortioner. In the case of R. S. Nayak v. A. R. Antulay, the court particularly laid down extortion shall only be considered when there are elements of fear and threat are present in the factual matrix. Further, the absence of these two main elements does not amount to a threat.

2. Secondly, there should be a dishonest intention or influence of the person through misleading means. The person being extorted should be forced or misguided, then only it shall be termed as an extortion. In the case of Biram Lal v. State, the court stated that the person must be forcefully induced to transfer or deliver the property from the owner to the extortioner, if the object is not delivered under the influence, then the act might only qualify as s mere attempt to commit extortion.

3. The delivery of the valuable security or property must be transferred from the owner’s possession to the extortioner’s possession. The property that is being extorted shall be valuable and of financial importance to the person. In the case of Anil B. Nadkarni v. Amitesh Kumar, the court contented that the delivery of the valuable property or security shall be in the favour of the extortioners' demands and the person must be forced to transfer the valuables as only then it would qualify as a case of extortion.

Extortion Case Laws

• In the landmark case of Sushil Suri v. Central Bureau of Investigation, the Supreme Court of India had framed essential ingredients for an act to qualify as extortion. The court stated that there should be an unintentional loss of one person and an intentional gain of another person as the two major elements required for extortion.

• In the case of Gurucharan Singh v. State of Punjab, the court introduced that ‘coercion’ is one of the main elements of extortion to constitute. The extorted person must be in an alarming situation to depart from the valuable property.

• The case of Romesh Chandra Arora v. State confined the accused behind bars because he threatened two girls that he would spoil their image in society and extorted a lumpsum amount of money in exchange for that. The court held that the person was liable for extortion.

• In the State of Karnataka v. Basavegowda Alias Chandra case, the court convicted the accused under Section 384 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 for extorting jewellery by threatening his wife with death.
  
  

Extortion to Theft

Theft is unlawfully taking away someone else’s property without their consent and with the intention of permanently takin away that property from them. Theft is defined under Section 378 of the Indian Penal Code,1860. Extortion is converted to theft when there is absence of consent from the victim, as in the extorted person had no idea about the mishap. During an extortion, if the person takes away the property without intimidating the person, then it turns into a theft. for example, if a person has threatened another person that he might take away his house keys if doesn’t give him all the money he has in his pocket, but actually takes away his keys and runs away, then the act of extortion turns into a theft.

1. Absence of consent.

2. Actual taking away of the property or valuable security.
   
   

In the case of State of Gujarat v. Mohanlal Jitamalji Porwal, the court could discover elements of both theft and extortion. The accused had threatened the victim to depart with his property and then without any influence, actually stole it away. The court in this case held that the extortion had turned into theft.

Extortion to Robbery

Robbery is an act of taking away the property of a person in their presence by intimidating them or forcing them to detach the property. Robbery is defined under Section 390 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Extortion becomes robbery when if the offender at the time of committing the offence of extortion, in the presence of the person from whom the property is being robbed, puts him in threat or fear of death or harm and takes away the belongings of the person, then it can be stated that an extortion is converted to robbery.

1. Presence of the offender

2. Immediate fear caused to the victim.

3. Violence or threat of violence.
   
   

In the case of Chaman Lal v. State of Punjab, the Supreme Court held that when a person extorts any belongings or property by putting someone in fear of death or injurious harm while the offender is present at the scene of occurrence, then it constitutes to a robbery.

Extortion to Dacoity

Dacoity occurs when five or more people in a group commit or attempt to commit robbery. Thereafter every person in the group shall be involved in the entire scenario of robbery. Dacoity is defined under Section 391 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. An extortion can become dacoity when five or more people collectively rob while attempting to extort property from a person. For example, a group of seven members, threatened a shopkeeper, to pay protection money to them otherwise they’ll kill the person. This scenario gets converted from an extortion to Dacoity.

1. Number of people should be five or more than five.

2. Collective action.

3. Presence and aid.

In the case of Fateh Singh v. State of Madhya Pradesh, the court laid down essential ingredients of dacoity that there is a requirement of a minimum of five members for an offence to qualify as dacoity.

Differentiation between Extortion, Theft, Robbery and Dacoity

Types of Extortion

Extortion can be majorly classified into the following three types:

• Blackmail: Blackmail is a type of extortion wherein the extortioner threatens to expose embarrassing or damaging information about a person unless they get paid or receive any benefits out of that. For example, a person ‘X’ threatens another person ‘Y’ that he will leak his documents in public or give them to someone who will explicitly reveal his divorce papers if not paid a certain sum of money to.

• Protection Racket: A Protection Racket is a form of extortion where individuals are forcefully asked to pay for protection against harm or damage, specifically from a particular person or a group offering the protection. For example, a gang demands regular payment of money in exchange for the protection offered to them against violence.

• Cyber Extortion: Cyber Extortion is an extortion where threatening or fearing people is done through electronic means of communication and technological methods are also involved. For example, hackers hack other people’s social media handles or threaten them online or virtually to gain a ransom amount in exchange.

Extortion in IPC

• Extortion is particularly prohibited under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in Section 383. According to Section 384 IPC, anybody who wilfully puts another person in fear of danger or harm to their property in order to collect something from them is guilty of extortion.
• Whoever, in order to commit extortion, puts or attempts to put any person in fear of any damage will be punished with imprisonment of either sort for up to two years, a fine, or both.

What is Cyber extortion?

• Cyber extortion is a type of cybercrime that includes digitally threatening or coercing someone into doing anything against their will. Cyber extortion often disrupts an organization's activities or exposes its valuable assets, such as sensitive data, intellectual property, or infrastructure systems.
• Cyber extortion is the act of blackmailing another person or organisation by threatening to reveal sensitive information or conduct a cyberattack. Cyber extortion refers to a broad range of internet and computer-related crimes.

Other Forms of Extortion

• Sextortion: Sextortion is a subset of extortion where the extortioner threatens the victim of revealing sexual images or obscene content unless the victim doesn’t pay the demanded sum of money or ransom to the perpetrator. For example, a person ‘A’ threatens a girl ‘B’ that he’ll expose her obscene pictures on the internet if she doesn’t surrender her car to him.

• Labour Extortion: Labor Extortion is where an individual or a group of individuals are coerced or forced to provide labour or services equivalent to labour by threatening them to do so. For example, a person named ‘M’ was forced to work in a sugar mill by threatening him that if he failed to do so then his family would be killed.

• Financial Extortion Financial Extortion is a type of extortion where a person is compelled or threatened to obtain financial benefits in order to obtain money or ransom amount. For example, a person named ‘T’ was manipulated by ‘P’ that there are incidences of theft and robbery are happening in the street where is café is located. ‘P’ proposes that if he pays him certain some of money, he will protect his café. Therefore, it can be said that ‘P’ financially coerced ‘T’ to give him money for the protection.