BNS Section 241: Destruction Of Document Or Electronic Record To Prevent Its Production As Evidence

Explanation and Illustration of BNS Section 241

This section is applicable to any person within the sovereign borders of India, whether citizen, resident or otherwise. It deals with the offence of destroying evidence. Let us break down the section to get a better understanding of it.

Offence

In essence, this section considers any person who tries to destroy evidence that may be used in a government proceeding as an offender. For the purpose of this section documents and electronic records are being defined specifically as evidence. It further defines four specific acts as destruction of evidence.

Secretion - Referring to concealing or hiding a document at a secret location

Destruction - Referring to damaging a document to the extent of being useless, such as shredding a document.

Obliteration - Referring to causing the document to cease from existence such as burning or dissolving a document.

Render Illegible - Referring to causing the items or words in the document to not be decipherable or readable, such as causing decay through chemical process or in the case of electronic records, encrypting them.

Any person who performs any of the above acts with the intention of preventing the document or electronic record from being produced or used as evidence before a Court or public servant, shall be considered an offender under the provisions of this section.

It further clarifies that the timing of such destruction is irrelevant. Destruction of a document or electronic record can take place in two scenarios:

A person may preempt the implicative nature of a document and feels they may be lawfully compelled to produce as evidence, so they destroy the evidence even before the authorities order for it to be produced as evidence in court,

The person destroys the document or electronic record after being lawfully summoned by the court or a public officer to present the said document as evidence in an ongoing proceeding.

Irrespective of when the document is destroyed, it shall still be considered an offence under the provisions of this section, as long as it meets the following criteria:

It is a document or an electronic record that has evidentiary value

Its evidentiary value is for the proceedings of a court or any other government authority presided over by an authorised public servant.

It is secreted / destroyed / obliterated / rendered illegible with the intent of preventing its use as evidence at these forums

Punishment

When the actions described above meet the criteria defined above, they shall be prosecuted under the provisions of this section and if found guilty, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or with both.

The above actions may not be an offence under this section if:

The document or electronic record does not have any evidentiary value/li>

The evidentiary value is not for any proceedings of the court or any other government authority

The public servant demanding the document or electronic record is not authorised to do so

The offender is forced or coerced into destroying the evidence

The offender is a minor or not of sane mind.

However, there may be other sections under the BNS under which the above actions can be prosecuted and while they may be disqualified under the provisions of this section, such actions will still be punishable under the provisions of those respective sections of the BNS.

Illustration

A court orders the footage from a security camera which may have recorded a crime. Z, who is in possession of the footage, intentionally destroys it to protect the person who committed the crime. Z is an offender under the provisions of Section 241.