Organised Crime Under the BNS (Section 111): a New Offence (2026)

Explainer · Criminal Law · BNS

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

Organised crime is a new offence under Section 111 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), the code that replaced the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on 1 July 2024. It has no single IPC section as an equivalent. For the first time, organised crime is an offence in the general national penal code, not only in state laws. Where an organised crime results in death, the punishment is death or imprisonment for life and a fine of not less than ten lakh rupees. In other cases it is imprisonment of not less than five years, extending to life, and a fine of not less than five lakh rupees. This explainer sets out what the section covers, how petty organised crime under Section 112 differs, and what changed. Last verified October 2026.

01What Section 111 of the BNS covers

Section 111 of the BNS defines and punishes organised crime. In plain terms, it targets serious crime that is run as an ongoing enterprise, not a one-off act.

The section covers a continuing unlawful activity, including kidnapping, robbery, vehicle theft, extortion, land grabbing, contract killing, economic offences, cyber crime, and trafficking of persons, drugs, weapons or illicit goods or services, as well as activities like human trafficking for prostitution and running protection rackets. The activity must be carried on by a person, singly or jointly, either as a member of an organised crime syndicate or on behalf of such a syndicate, by use of violence, threat, intimidation, coercion or other unlawful means to gain a direct or indirect material or financial benefit.

A key gatekeeping feature is that the activity counts as a continuing unlawful activity only where more than one charge sheet has been filed before a competent court within the preceding ten years, and that court has taken cognizance, with the underlying offence itself being a cognizable offence punishable with three years or more.

Section 111 also separately punishes abetting, attempting, conspiring, organising, aiding, harbouring an offender, holding property derived from organised crime, and membership of the syndicate, so the net is wide.

02How the old law compares

There is no single IPC section that Section 111 replaces. Under the old code, an organised crime would be charged as the individual offences involved, such as extortion, kidnapping or murder, often read with conspiracy, and serious cases were handled under special state laws.

So the right way to describe Section 111 is as a new, standalone offence that brings an organised crime law into the general penal code, rather than a renumbering of an old IPC section.

03Punishment and classification

The punishment under Section 111 depends on whether the organised crime caused death.

• Where it results in the death of a person: death or imprisonment for life, and a fine of not less than ten lakh rupees.
• In any other case: imprisonment for a term not less than five years, extending to imprisonment for life, and a fine of not less than five lakh rupees.

Separate punishments are set for abetment, harbouring, membership and holding the proceeds of organised crime. On classification, the offence is cognizable and non-bailable, and is triable by the Court of Session.

04Petty organised crime: Section 112

Section 112 of the BNS creates a separate, lesser offence of petty organised crime. This is also new to the national code.

It covers crime that causes general feelings of insecurity among citizens, such as theft of a vehicle or from a vehicle, pickpocketing, snatching, selling of public examination question papers, and similar organised activity by a gang. The punishment is imprisonment for a term not less than one year, extending up to seven years, and a fine. Snatching as a standalone offence is dealt with separately under Section 304 of the BNS.

05What changed from the old law

The big change is that organised crime and petty organised crime are now offences in the general criminal code that applies across India, rather than being left to the IPC read with conspiracy or to special state statutes. This gives investigators a single, named charge for syndicate-run crime, with heavy minimum punishments and minimum fines.

Because the provision is new and broadly worded, how courts read the gatekeeping tests, such as the requirement of earlier charge sheets, will shape its use. For related new offences see our explainer on the terrorist act under the BNS, and for the overview see the new criminal laws (BNS, BNSS and BSA).

06Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

Organised crime cases under Section 111 run for a long time, move through the Court of Session and higher courts, and often involve many accused. Claw lets you search and track cases, orders and judgments by section, party or advocate across 9,102 courts, benches and forums, with 30 crore+ judgments and results in under 5 seconds, so you can see how this new section is being read and follow a live matter through bail, framing of charge and trial. Claw does not use customer case documents to train AI models. Create a FREE Claw account to search and track cases under this section by party or advocate name. For the full picture, see case search across Indian courts.

07Sources and further reading

• Ministry of Home Affairs (new criminal laws): mha.gov.in
• India Code (official bare text of the BNS): indiacode.nic.in
• Text of BNS Section 111: devgan.in
• Claw: clawlaw.in

This explainer is general information, not legal advice. Always read the section as it stands on the day you act, and take advice from counsel on your facts.

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