VidhiSangh

Indian Penal Code, 1860

Section 38: Persons concerned in criminal Act may be guilty of different offences

Repealed. Repealed from 1 July 2024. Use it for offences committed before repeal and other liabilities, investigations or proceedings preserved by BNS section 358; do not use it as the current general penal code.

Chapter II — General Explanations

38. Where several persons are engaged or concerned in the commission of a criminal act, they may be guilty of different offences by means of that act.

Illustration A attacks Z under such circumstances of grave provocation that his killing of Z would be only culpable homicide not amounting to murder. B, having ill-will towards Z and intending to kill him, and not having been subject to the provocation, assists A in killing Z. Here, though A and B are both engaged in causing Z's death, B is guilty of murder, and A is guilty only of culpable homicide.

Source: official text of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.