Explain The  Section 351 Under BNS

The new comprehensive legal framework, known as the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, is intended to maintain social order and law. Its provisions include the offenses that deal with criminal intimidation.

Criminal Intimidation under Section 351 of BNS

• According to Section 351 under BNS (previously Section 503 of IPC), criminal intimidation is an offence if a person threatens or puts another person in danger or jeopardizes his reputation or property in an attempt to coerce the other person into doing anything that he is not legally required to do. The one who puts the other person at risk is the intimidator.
• The accused may threaten or injure the victim’s body, belongings, reputation, or other family members using words or gestures.
• For example: To get B to drop his legal lawsuit, A threatens to set fire to his home. Criminal intimidation is the offense that A has committed. In this instance, A will be found guilty of the crime of criminal intimidation as he has threatened B with harm to his property and then requested that he refrain from doing an act (filing a civil suit), which he is legally required to perform.

Section 351 under BNS: Essentials

One must first dissect the description of the offense in order to comprehend the extent of the violation under Section 351. The Section stipulates that: 

• Criminal intimidation occurs when someone threatens another with harm to their person, property, or reputation; 
• To anyone in whom the victim has an interest with the intention of alarming that person; 
• To force the victim to do something against his will; or 
• To prevent him from acting on his legal obligations in order to prevent the threat from coming to pass.

The following elements of the offense can be inferred from the definition given above. 

• It needs to be intentional conduct that puts someone in danger;

• It must be aimed at his person, property, or reputation; it must be aimed at anyone the victim has an interest in, whether it be their person, reputation, or property; 
• It needs to be done with the goal of alarming that person; else 
• It must either force him to do something against his legal obligations or prevent him from doing something that he is required by law to do.

Section 351 BNS Punishment

• Under Section 351 of the BNS, criminal intimidation carries a penalty. If found guilty under this section, the punishment for the offense could be up to two years in jail, a fine, or both. Nevertheless, this penalty will be imposed even if the perpetrator just threatens the victim.
• If the offender continues to cause harm, severe harm, or the death of the person who is being threatened, or starts a fire that destroys property, or commits an offense that carries a life sentence in prison or a term of imprisonment that can go up to seven years, they will be punished with a maximum of seven years in prison, a fine, or both. In addition, the accused faces up to seven years in prison, a fine, or both if they violate a woman’s right to chastity while engaging in criminal intimidation.

Creating a legal framework for crimes to be tried and penalties to be applied is the main objective of the BNS. It ensures that the law is followed. It is commonly employed to characterize a wide range of human transgressions. The offense of criminal intimidation is one of the cornerstones of the BNS. This kind of punishment is preventive in nature; instead of being punished for the crime, the accused is punished for intimidating. Whether or not the actual crime was committed is irrelevant.

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