Unit III — Offences Affecting the Human Body

“All murder is culpable homicide, but all culpable homicide is not murder — the difference lies in the degree of intention and knowledge.” — the classic distinction

Culpable Homicide, Murder & Transferred Malice

Culpable homicide (S.100) is causing death with the intention of causing death, or causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that the act is likely to cause death. Murder (S.101) is the aggravated form — culpable homicide becomes murder where the special intention/knowledge in its four clauses is present, unless a reducing exception applies. The dividing line is the degree of probability of death: likely to cause death → culpable homicide; sufficient in the ordinary course of nature / imminently dangerous → murder.

Transferred malice (S.102) provides that where a person, by an act intended to kill A, causes the death of B, it is murder/culpable homicide as if he had killed the person intended — the malice is transferred to the actual victim.

flowchart TD
    A["Murder (S.101) is reduced to<br/>Culpable Homicide when…"]:::root
    A --> B["Grave & sudden PROVOCATION"]:::leaf
    A --> C["Exceeding PRIVATE DEFENCE in good faith"]:::leaf
    A --> D["Act of a public servant exceeding authority (good faith)"]:::leaf
    A --> E["Sudden FIGHT, no premeditation, no undue advantage"]:::leaf
    A --> F["CONSENT of a person above 18 to take the risk of death"]:::leaf

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Hurt, Grievous Hurt & Offences Restricting Liberty

Hurt (S.114) is causing bodily pain, disease or infirmity; grievous hurt (S.116) is the eight enumerated serious categories (emasculation, loss of sight/hearing, fracture, disfiguration of head or face, hurt endangering life or causing 15+ days’ suffering, etc.). The BNS retains the specific offence of acid attack (Ss.124–125) — voluntarily causing grievous hurt by acid — with severe punishment. Offences restricting personal liberty include wrongful restraint (S.126) and wrongful confinement (S.127), while criminal force and assault (Ss.129–133) and kidnapping and abduction (Ss.137–140) protect bodily integrity and freedom of movement.

✏️ Sample Solved Problem (IRAC Method)

Problem: A gives his wife a poisoned apple intending to kill her. The wife, ignorant of the poison, gives the apple to their child, who eats it and dies; the wife does not die. Decide A’s liability.

I — Issue

Whether A is guilty of the murder of the child, where the act was aimed at the wife and the death of the child resulted through the wife’s innocent intervening act.

R — Rule

Section 102 (transferred malice) — where a person causes the death of one whose death he did not intend, by an act intended to cause the death of another, it is culpable homicide/murder as if he had killed the person intended; the malice is transferred to the actual victim.

A — Analysis

The decoy is twofold: the intended victim (the wife) survived, and the death was delivered through the innocent hand of the wife, suggesting A’s chain of causation was broken. Neither point saves him. By S.102 the murderous intent directed at the wife is transferred to the actual victim, the child, so A is treated as though he intended to kill the child. The wife’s innocent act of passing the apple does not break the chain of causation — she was an unwitting instrument, and the poisoned apple set in motion by A remained the operative and continuing cause of the child’s death. A cannot benefit from the accident that the poison reached a different innocent victim than the one he targeted.

C — Conclusion

A is guilty of the murder of the child (S.101 read with S.102). His malice towards the wife is transferred to the actual victim; the death passing through the wife’s innocent hand is immaterial.

📄 The full bundle (₹199) has the complete Unit III — culpable homicide vs murder, all four murder clauses and every reducing exception, transferred malice, hurt and grievous hurt, acid attacks, wrongful restraint/confinement and kidnapping — plus the Question Bank’s model answers to 10 solved problems (disfiguration, the Hakim’s operation, the acid attack, sudden fight, transferred malice). Get Notes + Question Bank — ₹199