Difference Between Kidnapping and Abduction
Generally, people are confused by the term kidnapping and abduction, but the two terms are not identical and differ in their nature. Section 359 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) deals with kidnapping. According to this section, kidnapping can be classified as kidnapping from India or kidnapping from legal guardianship (any person authorized by law to take care of a minor who is not yet a majority). In the case of kidnapping, the age of the victim under IPC Section 361 is 16 for males and 18 for females.
Section 362 of the IPC deals with the abduction, which is said to be the abduction of one such person by force or by compulsion of another person from any place. In the case of abduction, there is no such thing as age. Any person who has been coerced, regardless of age, will be booked with Abduction. Thus all kidnapping is abduction, but not all abduction is kidnapping.
In common language kidnapping is the offence of carrying away, or secreting, of any person against his will, or against the will of his lawful guardians and Abduction means forcibly or fraudulently carrying away of a person but the abduction has been defined as the legal act of taking away a person by force, fraud or violence.
Kidnapping is not a continuing offense, and the offense is completed as soon as the minor is removed from his / her guardian. Abduction is a persistent crime, and the offense continues as the position of the abducted person changes with each other.
Intention
He is liable in all circumstances, irrespective of the motive and good intentions of a person, but it is important to determine the offense of abduction, so that a person is liable only if there is a motive.
Means used
In a kidnapping, taking a minor, the means to kidnap a child may be innocent.
The tools used for abduction are force, force, or deception.
Age
The age of male should be16 or less than 16 and the female must be of 18 years old or under the age of 18 but there is no barrier to the specific age of the abduction.
Guardianship
In kidnapping the person kidnapped is removed from lawful guardianship and the child without a guardianship cannot be kidnapped.
Guardianship is immaterial to determine the offence of Abduction, it has reference exclusively to the person abducted
Cases
In Bahadur Ali v. king Emperor[1], the court held that where the accused represented himself as a police constable and kept the girl in his possession in his own house for a ransom of Rs.600, such an act is the offence of abduction.
In Gurucharan Singh v. State of Haryana[2], the prosecutrix was threatened with a pistol by the accused and forced to go with him, such taking away was held to be abduction.
In Padeep kumar v. State of Bihar and Anr[3], the Supreme Court held that the consent obtained by lying to the father of the girl regarding the purpose of taking his minor daughter away cannot be termed as consent under the purview of this section and such taking away would amount to kidnapping.
Citation
[1] AIR 1923 Lah 158
[2] 1972 AIR 2661
[3] AIR 2007 SC 3059