Legal Provisions of Section 206 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Fraudulent removal or concealment of property to prevent its seizure as forfeited or in execution:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Fraudulent removal or concealment of property to prevent its seizure as a forfeited property or in execution of a decree or order has been made an offence under this section. The section says that whoever with intention to defraud either remove, conceals, transfers or delivers to any person any property or any interest in that property, with the intention thereby to prevent the taking of that property or interest in that property as a forfeiture or in satisfaction of a fine, under a pronounced sentence, or under a sentence about which he has knowledge that it is likely to be pronounced, by either a court of justice or other competent authority, or prevent the taking of that property or interest in that property in execution of a decree or order made by a court of justice, or about which he has knowledge that such a decree or order is likely to be made by a court of justice in a civil suit, shall be punished with simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term extending up to two years, or with fine, or with both.
The section requires that the removal, concealment, transfer or delivery of any property or any interest therein to any person must be fraudulent. The intention of doing so must be to prevent the property or such interest from being taken as a forfeiture or in satisfaction of a fine, under a pronounced sentence or which that accused knows to be likely to be pronounced by a court of justice or other competent authority, or from being taken in execution of a decree or order made or known within the knowledge of the accused is be likely to be made by a court of justice in a civil suit.
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Where a property has already been taken and the act of removal is subsequent to this taking, the section can have no application. The act on the part of the accused under this section must be fraudulent and not dishonest. Harvesting crop openly, thus forestalling action of a court, is a dishonest act and not a fraudulent one. So is an open removal which cannot be called a fraudulent removal in the absence of an element of secrecy or deception.
The offence under this section is non-cognizable, bailable and non-compoundable, and is triable by metropolitan magistrate or magistrate of the first or second class.