STAGES OF CRIME

 Stages
o Motive
o Preparation
o Attempt
o Commission
 E.g. SB and Rj rivalry
o SB defamed Rj
o SB in order to take revenge he plants narcotic drugs in the room
o SB found guilty
 Stage 1: Motive – here the motive is SB thinking he wants to take revenge
 Intention is the will of a person which is directed towards an overt act.
Motive is the ulterior objective of a person with which he does not act.
 Does motive develop first or intention? ultimate intention is motive and
motive comes first. Sometimes both words are used interchangeably.
 Intention vs motive
o Intent refers to a person’s conscious decision to commit an act that
violates state or federal laws.
o Motive is the mental state which subsequently becomes mens rea
o The stage where the intention to commit the crime generated in the
mind of the offender.
 Motive and intention develop almost at the same time. If the motive is
coming into the mind then intention also starts developing.
 Motive deals with an individual’s underlying reasons for committing a crim,
whereas intent is concerned with their willingness to carry out specific
actions related to the offence.
 E.g. B made A nominee to his insurance when A was 4 years old and she
didn’t know that until 30 years old. And if B dies unnatural death then A
becomes the prime suspect. A visited the night before his death. The motive
here existed since the insurance was first put as a nominee (at 4 years old)
and the motive has not transferred to the accused until she got to know about
the insurance. This motive then becomes intention (mens rea) and the actus
reus of killing B comes into place.
 Intention is driven by motive.
 Motive itself is not punishable
o No harm caused, no actus reus
o Thoughts are temporary
 E.g. A animal activist see a man hitting a dog with rocks and
the activist thinks that she instead of going to court will throw
rocks at the person, but in few seconds, she comes to sense and
realizes that it is wrong and decided to call cops. The motive
comes into mind that she wants to kill him but her thoughts
change which means no actus reus so no crime.
 One may express an idea which is contrary to law, morals or is
unconventional, but as long as he does not act on them or
induce others to act on them, such mental matters are outside
the realm of penal law and the person may not be subjected to
criminal prosecution.
o No technique to prove motive
 Difficult to establish evidence to prove it
 Neurochemical techniques, polygraph, brain mapping
techniques are there but are not concrete techniques and not
very reliable.
o Intention is only supposition not fact
o Exception: Criminal intimidation – Section 503
 Motive in itself is not punishable
 The question of intention and motive was dealt with the case of
Atley v. state of U.P AIR 1955 SC 807 wherein the Hon’ble SC
held that it is not necessary to prove as to what motivated the
act. The commission of the act needs to be proved and the
motive is immatrerial.
 Expression of an intention is punishable – section 503
 Whoever threatens another with any injury to his person,
reputation or property, or to the person or reputation of
any one in whom that person is interested, with intent to
cause alarm to that person, or to cause that person to do
any act which he is not legally bound to do, or to omit to
 do any act which that person is legally entitled to do, as
the means of avoiding the execution of such threat,
commits criminal intimidation.
 E.g. if a person in between of a sudden conflict says that he will
kill him, here expression of the intention to kill is causing
alarm, disturbance to another person and here the actus reus is
the person telling (expression) that he will kill
 Intention to commit a crime is not punishable unless it is made
known to others either by words or conduct.
o Are kleptomaniacs treated as criminals in eyes of law if they steal
something?
 not unsound but it’s beyond his ability to stop stealing and
under section 84 where he will not be arrested)
o Assault vs criminal intimidation
 Assault is a criminal force and it in itself is a crime and it does
not cause alarm to another person
 Criminal intimidation does not require criminal force, its just
words and it causes alarm.
 Assault has more gravity and punishments compared to
criminal intimidation.
 STAGE 2- Preparation
o More act-oriented stage than motive
o Its concrete
o Making necessary arrangements to facilitate the commission of crime
o Involves
 Procuring necessary tools
 Planning the manner of execution
 Planning can need not just be mental it can be physical
like procuring a gun illegally or legally
o Preparing to commit a crime is also not generally punishable- it need
to be kept in mind that criminal act had not been committed yet and
therefore this stage is not punishable.
 No certainty that crime will be committed
  Difficult to ascertain whether preparation involves criminal
intent or is innocent
 Every action can be supposed as preparation for some or the
other crime.
o Exception: if preparation is in itself
 Grave in nature. E.g. Plan to kill president, planning of terrorist
attack.
 Poses threat to general safety of the public
 Does not leave scope for innocence
 Criminal conspiracy is preparation so its punishable.
o E.g. for exceptions
 Section 122- Waging war against the GOI - this section
criminalizes the act of a person when he or she is involved in
collecting of arms and ammunition with an intent to wage a war
against the State i.e. the GOI. This act has been punished with
an imprisonment up to life or not a term not exceeding ten
years.
 Section 399 – making preparation to commit dacoity – whoever
makes any preparation for committing dacoity, shall be
punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may
extend to 10 years and shall also be liable to pay fine.
 Case 1- illegally procuring the gun – having gun without license in itself is a
crime. This is complete crime when he has the possession of it.
 Case 3- murder
 The act amounts to crime in one and in the other its preparation.
 Here he will be punished for possessing gun but not for murder coz he has
not attempted it yet. Preparation for crime is not punishable unless that
preparation in itself is criminalized and has punishments for it.
 Attempt to murder is an offence but not preparation to murder is not.
 Inchoate crime
o An inchoate crime is a crime committed by doing an act with the
purpose of effecting some other offence
o Inchoate: initial, incomplete, underdeveloped
o E.g. criminal conspiracy, attempt, abetment
 o It is a crime of preparing for or seeking to commit another crime.

Stage 3: Attempt
o Subsequent to preparation
o An attempt is the direct movement towards the commission of an
offence after preparations have been made.
o Its punishable
o Effort is in the form of an overt action on part of the individual
seeking to fulfil his contemplations.
o It has not been defined under IPC but has been penalized in sections
such as-
 Section 511: this section spells out the imprisonment which is
to be imposed on an individual if he or she is found attempting
to commits an offence.
o Koppula Venkat Rao v. State of Andhra Pradesh AIR 2004 SC 1874
 “ an attempt to commit an offence is an act , or series of acts,
which leads inevitably to the commission of the offence, unless
something, which the doer of the act neither foresaw nor
intended, happens to prevent this. So, an attempt may be
described to be an act done in part execution of a criminal
design, amounting to more than mere preparation.
o A successful attempt of crime is punishable and also an unsuccessful
attempt to commit a crime is also punishable.
o Essentials of attempt
 There was intention to commit the offence
 An act is done towards the commission of the offence which is
more than mere preparation.
 The attempt to commit the offence has failed, due to reason
beyond the offender’s control.
o Crime and attempt to commit the crime dealt with under the same
section
 Section 124A, 385, 387, 389,391, 460 – Attempt to commit
sedition, extortion, dacoity, criminal trespass.
 o Attempt to an impossible act
 If a person attempts to commit a crime which is impossible,
then also it will be punishable under the IPC.
 If a person attempts to kill someone by empty gun, or steal
something from an empty pocket, or steal jewels from empty
jewel box. Then it is considered as an impossible attempt of
committing that crime but here intention to commit the crime is
present and also a step is taken towards completion of that
crime. Thus, it is considered as “attempt to crime” under
section 511 of the IPC.
STAGE 4: COMMISSION OF A CRIME
 Successful attempt amounts to competition
 Renders the offender criminally liable and punishable under retrospective
provisions pertaining to specific offences.
 It is the last stage of the commission of a crime. This is the stage where the
offender has crossed all the three initial stages. At this stage, the person
completes the actus reus. The act would also include omission.