Section 87 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) punishes kidnapping or abducting a woman to compel her to marry, or to force or seduce her to illicit intercourse. It is the direct successor of Section 366 of the Indian Penal Code, which the official comparison table records as renumbered into the BNS with no change when the new code commenced on 1 July 2024.
What Section 87 BNS provides
The section has two limbs:
- Kidnapping or abduction with the specified intent - whoever kidnaps or abducts any woman with intent that she may be compelled, or knowing it to be likely that she will be compelled, to marry any person against her will, or in order that she may be forced or seduced to illicit intercourse, or knowing it to be likely that she will be so forced or seduced.
- Inducement by compulsion - whoever, by means of criminal intimidation or of abuse of authority or any other method of compulsion, induces any woman to go from any place with intent that she may be, or knowing it likely that she will be, forced or seduced to illicit intercourse.
Both limbs carry the same punishment: imprisonment which may extend to ten years, and fine.
Procedure and classification
Per the First Schedule, the offence is cognizable (the police can register an FIR and investigate without a Magistrate's order), non-bailable (bail is at the court's discretion, not a right), and triable by the Court of Session.
What the prosecution must prove
The offence is aggravated kidnapping or abduction: the base act of taking, enticing or abducting must be established first, and then the specific intent or knowledge - compelled marriage, or forced or seduced illicit intercourse - at the time of the act. Intent is usually inferred from conduct and circumstances. Where a young woman leaves of her own accord and the accused played no active part in her leaving her guardian's keeping, the Supreme Court has held there is no "taking" at all - S. Varadarajan v. State of Madras (1965) - a distinction that continues to decide many cases arising out of elopements.
What changed from Section 366 IPC
Nothing of substance - the provision was renumbered from 366 IPC to 87 BNS, and the official comparison table records "no change". The extensive case law on kidnapping, abduction and the required intent continues to apply. Note that the BNS ends at Section 358, so there is no "Section 366" in the new code; a charge on these facts registered today cites Section 87 BNS.
Involved in a case under this section - as a complainant's family or as an accused? These are Sessions trials in which the intent element and the circumstances of the taking are fought hard. Talk to a criminal lawyer in your city or browse advocates in the Free Law directory.