CHEATING BY PERSONATION-A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN PHYSICAL AND

VIRTUAL WORLD

Submitted by:
V. VINEETH REDDY
2013129
3rd SEMESTER

DAMODARM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

Visakhapatnam
November 2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

I would like to express my gratitude towards our Vice-Chancellor Prof. R. G. B. Bhagavath

Kumar Sir, for the providing me an opportunity to improve my skills of writing and research
through the form of projects. I would specially like to thank our Indian penal code associate
professor Ms. Nandini c.p Maam for the support she has provided me in completion of the
project successfully.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
S.No

TITLES

PAGE NUMBERS

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

INGREDIENTS OF CHEATING

JUDUCIAL PRONOUNCEMENTS

CHEATING BY PERSONATION IN REAL

WORLD
TYPES OF PERSONATION

VIRTUAL WORLD CHEATING

IDENTITY THEFT

STAGES OF ID THEFT

10

TYPES OF ID THEFT

11

CHALLENGES

12

WORLD
PUNISHMENT

13

CONCLUSION

14

BIBLIOGRAGPHY

FACED

IN

VIRTUAL

INTRODUCTION
Personation has been explained in the oxford dictionary as pretending to be someone else,
especially for fraudulent purposes1. The criminal legal dictionary defines the same as the act
of assuming the character of another without lawful authority, and, in such character doing
something to his prejudice, or to the prejudice of another, without his will or consent.2
So, when a person is acting or behaving to be someone else and does anything in such name
with fraudulent intentions and to cause such harm to the person who is so represented to him,
then the act may be called personation. Under the Indian Penal Code, the word personation
has been used in the Sections 171D, 171F, 205, 229, 416 and 419 but has not been defined in
any of the Sections.
Cheating by personation is defined under the section 4163of the Code. It states explains the
offence is committed whether the individual personated is a real or imaginary person.4
So in order to understand the definition given in this section it becomes necessary to know
the exact meaning of the term cheating as defined under the code, which can be found in the
section 4155. According to this section dishonest concealment of facts is a deception within
the meaning of this section.
INGREDIENTS OF CHEATING:
1http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/personate, last viewed on 22-09-14
2http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/personation, last viewed on 22-09-14
3 416. A person is said to "cheat by personation" if he cheats by pretending to be some other person, or by
knowingly substituting one person for another, or representing that he or any other person is a person other than
he or such other person really is.

4http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/sections_detail.php?id=11&sections_id=3292, last viewed on 22-0914

5 415. Cheating.Whoever, by deceiving any person, fraudulently or dishonestly induces the person so
deceived to deliver any property to any person, or to consent that any person shall retain any property, or
intentionally induces the person so deceived to do or omit to do anything which he would not do or omit if he
were not so deceived, and which act or omission causes or is likely to cause damage or harm to that person in
body, mind, reputation or property, is said to cheat.

The primary ingredient for cheating is the accused must have fraudulently or dishonestly
induced a person

Fraudulently or dishonestly:
The words fraudulently and dishonestly are of huge importance here in this section. These
words actually induce the elements of the deception and dishonest intention thus we can state
that any wilful misrepresentation with intention to deceive or defraud a person is called
cheating.
The deceived should be induced to deliver any property to any person or consent that any
person shall retain any property here the property can be anything it can be either movable
kind of property or immovable kind of property and there is no rule that the property must
belong to the person deceived. Here in this section and section 420 properties can be anything
such as passport, deeds, hall ticket or any kind of certificates.

Javerchand chawla vs. state of Andhra Pradesh6:

Facts: Accused though he is not owner of the shop received loan from the
complainant by saying that he is owner the shop. Complainant received cheques from
the accused. Those were bounced. In this case the court held that where accused got
loan on false representation to the complainant that he was the owner of the shop
which he was actually not and cheques which were issued by the accused also
bounced thus here the offence related to cheating was made out
Held- in this case court held accused made a false representation which is considered
as cheating under section 416 because the accused here have the evil intention and
carried out the act so he will liable.

Baboo khan vs state of uttar Pradesh7

facts: here in this case the accused (baboo khan) who pretended or acted to be a
certain well known eye specialist i.e. baboo khan pretended to be Dr mohan lal who is
a very good eye specialist and induced the complainant (zalim) to allow him to
perform an operation on the eye of his 12 years old son
held: here in this case the court found the accused guilty and has been sentenced him
to 9 months along with the fine of rupees hundred and he later appealed it to higher
court but the decision was upheld
Intentionally:
Act should be committed by the wrong doer intentionally if the act was not done
intentionally it does not amount to cheating
Damage:
The deceived person should suffer any damage. Damage could be anything such as harm in
body, mind, reputation or property by the deceitful act of the wrong doer.

Ram Prakash Singh vs. State of Bihar8:

Facts: The accused was an officer in LIC. He introduced some fake LIC with a view
to attain promotion on the basis of inflated business. He took the defence that the
other person had not suffered any damage as such but here the court said that it should
be treated as the preparation for cheating and convicted the accused.
Held: here in this case the court held that the accused though did not do harm to
anyone, he act will be treated as a preparation and he will be liable for preparation.

Abhyanand Mishra vs. state of bihar9:

7 AIR 1961 ALL 639,1961 Cr.L.J. 759

8 Ram prakash singh vs. state of bihar, AIR 1998 (1) SCC 173
9 Abhyanand Mishra vs state of bihar, AIR 1961 SC 1698

Facts: here in this case the accused have produced fake certificates and information to
the University for appearing examinations conducted by a university
Held: courts convicted him under the section 420 and 511 of Indian Penal Code. Later
courts held that the section 420 would not be attracted because there was no pecuniary
damage and here the courts also held that mere preparation would be an attempt. And
courts also stated that until the person who is producing the certificates did not post
the fake certificates it would not be considered as an attempt under 511 but once he
posted the certificates it would be treated as an attempt
MENS REA:
Mens rea which means guilty intention is also another essential element in the concept of
cheating .the accused should possess the guilty intention. Intention and act should concur to
constitute a crime. Dishonest concealment of facts is also treated as cheating.

Chinthamani vs dyaneshwar10:
Facts: In this case the accused sold the property to the complainant which was
already mortgaged to another person .here the accused dishonestly concealed the fact
that it was mortgaged and this was a clear cut cheating offence and
Held: Thus it was interpreted in this case was concealment of facts dishonestly is also
an offence of cheating

JUDICIAL PRONOUNCEMENT ON DISHONOUR OF CHEQUES:

Joseph vs Philip joseph11: In case of joseph vs. Philip joseph, it was held that where
the cheque was issued by the drawer from the account which was closed in the year
1990 when the account had been closed by him in 1987 and the cheque was
dishonoured no offence under section 138 of negotiable instruments act was made
out. Offence could also come within the preview of section 420 of Indian penal code

10 Chinthamani vs. dyaneshwar, 1974 Cr.L.J 542 Bombay

11 Joseph vs. Philip Joseph, AIR 2001 Ker.300

CHEATING BY PERSONATION:
Cheating by personation was defined under section 416 of IPC it explains the cheating by
personation means if a person is said to be cheat by personation if he cheats by pretending to
be some other person, or by knowingly substituting 12 one person for another, or representing
that he or any other person is a person that he or such person really is
The explanation of this section makes it clear that the individual personated is either real or
imaginary Cheating by personating can be divided into two types. One is real world and the
other is virtual world. Examples for cheating by personating in real life are

A cheats by pretending to be a certain rich banker of the same name then A is liable
under section 416 of IPC.

A cheats by pretending to be B, the person who is deceased already then A will be

held liable for cheat by personation

Mere personation will not attract punishment because there was no harm happened to the
society for example if A buys a kilogram of tomato at vegetable market and on being asked
his name, he told that his name was B, it fulfils all the ingredients of personation but it is not
punishable because there was no damage done. Thus personation is punishable only when
accused cheats13
State v. padam singh14 , the high court of Madhya Pradesh held that the accused cannot be
punished merely because he secured an employment by giving out a fictitious name for
himself, court also held that but the accused in this case must prove that he didnt secure this
job because of personation.
Enjoyment anothers benefit:

12 Substituting means act or speak as a replacement

13 Dr.K Vibhute, P.S.A Pilai criminal law , 11 th edition, 2012,lexis Nexis
butterwoths India,2008
14 1973, Cr.L.J 877 (MP)

R.Matameswara rao case15

Facts : This is a very small case in this case the accused used the railway season ticket issued
in the name of different person and the accused pretended to be that person and
Held::This falls under the section 416 of IPC and the accused was found guilty and made
liable for his mistake because he was enjoying the another persons benefit.One thing which
can be clearly derived after analysing this case is one should be cheated first and the second
thing is he should be cheated by personation and then the accused will be liable

PERSONATION BY WITNESS:
In the case of bhika vs. emperor16, the court held that one who gives false evidence by
pretending to be some other person then the person would be liable under section 193 of the
code but not under cheating by personation
Personation Before Public Service Commission:
sushil kumar dutta vs. state17:
facts: the accused actually pretended to be a person belonging to scheduled caste and was
successful in getting into Indian administrative service, he got an appointment on basis of
false representation,
Held: here the courts convicted him under section 416 of IPC

15 1957 Cr.L.J 44.

16 (1863) I Bom HC 89
17 1985 Cr.L.J 1948 (CAL)

In another case of In re k. rama rao18, similar to the facts laid in above case here the accused
produced false certificates of engineering degree and got job in the public service
commission in appropriate cadre, courts held that he had committed cheating by personation.
Personation Before A Public Servant:
In case of khairati ram v. state19,
Facts: the accused was not the payee mentioned in the money orders but he fraudulently
misrepresented the postman and deceived him and made him believe that he was the payee,
the accused have also produced fake identity cards to make postman believe that he was
payee,
Held: here in this case the accused was held liable under section 416 of IPC i.e cheating by
personation

In another case of jagat Narayan v. state20 ,

Facts: the accused with the permission of the his brother went to post office and represented
him as his brother, signed in the name of his brother and bought money from post office,
held: he will not be liable because there was no evil intention or intention to deceive.
In case of Ram jas vs. state21,
Facts and held: accused here merely induced as an oath commissioner, by wrongful
identification, to attest an affidavit does not commit cheating by personation because, one
should do such kind of an act that would cause damage or harm to the other in body, mind,

18 1960 Cr.L.J 1181

19 1972, Cr.L.J 254 (DEL)
20 A.I.R. 1967 ALL.123.
21 A.I.R. 1974 SC 184

reputation or property as such. Here the ingredient damage was not satisfied hence the
accused was acquitted.
False Representation As To Caste:
In case of kshitish Chandra chakrabarti v. emperor22,
Facts: The accused, a one sect of Brahmin i.e. barna Brahmin represented himself falsely to
the mother of a girl whom he married as another sect of Brahmin i.e. barendra Brahmin and
thus induced the mother of the girl to get married to him
Held: In this case if the accused had not falsely represented him as barendra Brahmin he
would not have married that girl, thus in this case the accused held liable for cheating by
personation under section 416 of Indian Penal Code
In another case mohin chunder sil v. emperor,23 the accused falsely represented to a man that
a girl of low caste was a Brahmin and thus induced him to pay to the accused some money as
a consideration for marriage of the mans brother with the girl; he was held guilty of
committing cheating by personation

Accused Person Professing To Be A Bachelor:

In case of M.N.A. Achar vs. D.L Rajagopal24, accused dishonestly induced the complainant
as well as his daughter to agree to have marriage with him by professing to be a bachelor he
was not is cheating by personation. It is not correct to say that simply because the accused did
not change his name on any occasion or remained the very same person, although assumed a
different status or character according to this representation, this offence could not be
commited.
22 1937 Cr.L.J 577 (CAL)
23 (1871) 16 WR (cr) 42
24 1977 Cr.L.J N KAR (228)

CHEATING BY PERSONATION IN VIRTUAL WORLD:

Now coming to cheating by personation in virtual world the concept is very much similar to
the concept of cheating in real world but here the cheating happens on computer or any other
device. The law which deals with the cheating by personation in virtual world is section 66 C
and 66 D25 of the Information Technology Act 2000 i.e Punishment for identity theft and
punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource. So while dealing with
cheating by personation in virtual world three aspects need to be present.

It needs to be proved that the person is cheated, here the word cheat must fulfil the
ingredients under IPC i.e. fraudulent or dishonest intention even if it is done in cyber
space

It must be cheating by personation (i.e. the person who is deceiving must try to act or
pretend as another person)

Cheating by personation must be by using computer or any other electronic device,

thus in this virtual world the deceitful element must be carried out by computer.

The third aspect is not present in cheating by personation in real world where as the third
aspect should be present in cheating by personation in virtual world Thus section 416 of IPC
deals with cheating by personation in physical world and the section 419 of IPC deals with
the punishments for cheating by personation. According to this section the person may be
imprisoned up to 3 years or fine or may be both and section 66 d of information and
technology act deals with the cheating by personation in virtual world. This is the basic
difference between cheating by personation in real and virtual world

Illustration-

25 66-D. whoever by means of any communication device or computer resource cheats

by personation, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term
which may extend to three years and shall also be liable for fine which may extend to
rupees one lakh

Revati receives an email that appears to have been sent from a famous online shopping
website in India. Email promises her to an iPod at a discounted price if she pays Rs. 500 as a
deposit amount. Attracted by the offer, she visited a link specified in the email and it
redirected her to a webpage where she entered her net-banking username, password and other
information. In reality, the email as well as website was fake and her information is stolen
and misused. Investigations revealed that the fake email and website was created by Rohit.
He would be liable under this section.
IDENTITY THEFT:
Identity Theft is a crime in which an impostor obtains key pieces of personal identifying
information (PII) such as Social Security numbers and drivers license numbers and uses
them for their own personal gain. This is called ID Theft.
Identity theft is the process wherein another person who is pretending to act as another person
with the dishonest intention, identity theft in the cyber world can be carried out in different
ways. Identity theft (real name fraud) is the taking of the victims identity to obtain money,
credit and debit cards from banks and retailers, apply for loans, establish accounts with some
other third companies, rent an apartment on victims identity, attain a job using the victims
identity. Criminals are using the victims identity to commit the crimes which are varying
from traffic cases to serious crimes.

Stages of Identity Theft

There are three stages of identity theft. Any identity theft case may include one or all of these
stages
Acquisition of the identity: It involves the acquisition of the identity through theft, hacking,
redirecting or intercepting mail or by purchasing identifying information on the internet.
Use of the identity: After the acquisition of the identity, the fraudster may use the identity to
commit another crime resulting in financial gain to him like misuse of the credit card
information to make online purchase, opening new accounts, sell the identities to others who
commit fraud. Sometime the stolen information may be used to harass the victim, like posting
of pornography or obscene material by fraudster posing himself as the victim.

Discovery of the theft: Many cases of misuse of credit cards are discovered quickly,
however in some cases the victim of an identity theft may not even know how or when their
identity was stolen and theft may take 6 months to several years to come to the notice of the
victim. Study reveals that the longer it takes to discover the theft, the greater the loss incurred
by the victim.
TYPES OF IDENTITY THEFT:

Applying for credit and debit cards on the name of another one

Using credit cards of the individual by stealing his information

loans obtained from banks fraudulently

Fake phone pretending as bank employees

Creating e mail ids and social networking profiles by giving false information

Illegal activities carried on the name of victim

Securing job and other benefits by using the name of victim

Identity Theft In Credit Cards;

The person may use the identity to commit another crime resulting in financial gain to him
like misuse of the credit card information to make online purchase, opening new accounts,
sell the identities to others

Case law-

Facts: In this case the three people booked plane tickets by misusing credit card details of
almost 100 people and obtaining credit from their accounts fraudulently, those three people
were caught by the city crime investigation centre in Pune
Mr. Parvesh Chauhan, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance officer had complained on behalf of
one of his customer. In this regard Mr. Sanjeet Mahavir Singh Lukkad, Dharmendra Bhika
Kale and Ahmead Sikandar Shaikh. These three people were arrested. Lukkad being
employeed at a private institution, Kale was his friend. Shaiklh was employed in one of the
branches of State Bank of India.
According to the first information report received from the police, one of the victims received
a message to his phone based alert for purchasing of the ticket even when the credit card was
being held by him and he was not using his credit card when he received that message.
Customer was alert and came to know something is going wrong and unusual; he enquired
and came to know about the misuse. He contacted the Bank in this regards. Later police
observed that there was involvement of many other Banks in this reference.
The tickets were booked through online means for many people thus making this offence
come under IT Act. Police requested for the login details from a private investigation
company which gave them the details of the offenders, later state bank of India also provided
the police with details. Shaikh was working in the credit card department; due to this he had
access to credit card details of some customers. He gave that information to Kale. Kale in
return passed this information to his friend Lukkad. Using the information obtained from
Kale Lukkad booked tickets. He used to sell these tickets to customers and get money for the
same. He had given few tickets to various other institutions.Cyber Cell head DCP Sunil
Pulhari and PI Mohan Mohadikar A.P.I Kate were involved in eight days of investigation and
finally caught the culprits. In this regards various Banks have been contacted; also four airline industries were contacted. DCP Sunil Pulhari has requested customers who have fallen in
to this trap to inform police authorities on 2612-4452 or 2612-3346 if they have any
problems.
Held: In this case the court held that those three people where guilty under section 66 c of the
information act because this case fulfils all the ingredients of cheating of personation carried
in virtual world.Three people were punished under the section 66 c and 66 d of information
technology act.

Cases related to creating fake email ids and social networking accounts:
Charu singh case:
Facts:
In this case the charu singh is an air hostess and broke up with her boyfriend because the a
person got into the account of her and sent abusive messages to her boyfriend because of
which charu singh broke up
Held:
In this case the person who sent the message was held liable because, he dishonestly
personated himself to be charu singh and sent the messages through computer resource, thus
making him liable for cheating by personation under the provisions of section 66.
In addition to these cases there are many other cases on this concept also such as a fake
account was created on the name of accused in ektha nath case and the culprit was held liable.
There was hike in the cases in every year, the cases filed under this section have double over
the last two years of tym
Sandeep vaghese vs state of kerala
Facts: here in this case the complaint was filed by the representative of company. Company
basically deals with trading and distribution of petrochemicals in India and overseas. Here in
this case the complaint was filed on nine members alleging offences under section 65,66,66
A, C and D of the information technology act along with the sections 419 and 420 of Indian
penal code.
The company actually has a website named www.jaypolychem.com but another internet
website named www.jaypolchem.com was started by the accused people and the website was
actually started by first accused named sandeep in conspiracy with remaining accused
peopled named preethi and chanranjeeth etc. and interesting fact here in this case is sandeep
was the dismissed employee of company which acts circumstantial evidence to the case that
sandeep is guilty of this cheating and the website which was set up by sandeep consisted of
defamatory and malignant matters of the company here the accused 9 persons have

collectively cheated the company and have committed the acts of forgery and impersonation
etc.26
The nine started sending emails to the customers of the company by stating false news
regarding the company and its directors and this caused severe damage to the fame of the
company and they have incurred huge losses because of these acts. It is estimated that the
loss amounts to several crores. Here in this case the accused was found guilty and awarded
punishment as of such.
CHALLENGES FACED IN VIRTUAL WORLD:
Difficulties in fetching the person:
The biggest challenge in cheating by personation in virtual world or cyber space would be
identifying the person who constituted the crime unlike the cheating by personation in real
world in virtual world. The fetching of person who constituted crime in cyber space could be
done through the tracing of IP address and a separate cyber team will be involved in solving
the case. In real world though the personated person is real or imaginary person, the person
who is acting was seen at least once by the victim, but in virtual world there is no scope of
eye contact with the person, which makes the things difficult and fishy.
Cross country jurisdiction:
The difficult task for any nation could be solving the cross country jurisdiction; here the
country should be a signatory to lot more conventions in order to make this cross country
jurisdiction simple, since the cyber-crimes are contemporary subject with a lot of flexibility,
the country should keep this in mind while being signatory to any convention
And also the applicability of law in cyber-crimes is also an important challenge the act should
be amended as per the developments in the science and technology field because of the
increasing rate of the crimes, the legislation should pass the laws or amend the laws to make
it simple.

26 http://www.slideshare.net/NIIConsulting/it-act-2000-penalties-offences-withcase-studies last viewed on 22-09-14

PUNISHMENT FOR CHEATING BY PERSONATION:

Section 41927 of the Indian Penal Code deals with the punishment that is been awarded to the
person who is convicted for the offence cheating by personation, this section also mentions
that the convicted may attract a punishment up to 3 years or fine or with both
Yashpal mittal vs. state:
Held:
The Supreme Court ruled in this case that where the contents of the charge clearly state that
the main object for criminal conspiracy was cheating by personation, the accused was also
charged with section 419 28 along with other sections of IPC,
The offence under this section is cognizable29, bailable and compoundable30
Punishments are similar in the case of real world and the virtual world

27 Section 419: whoever cheats by personation shall be punished with an

imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years,
or with fine, or with both.
28 AIR 1979 SC 2433
29 Capable of being known
30 Means to make more intense, more stronger or more marked.

CONCLUSION:
An analysis of the cheating by personation in the cyber space and the real world has provided
significant facets in relation to Indian Penal Code. The research exhibits that there are certain
challenges which hinder the number of crimes in the cyber world in comparison to real world.
In the cyber space if a certain individual is found to be committing a crime then it is difficult
to catch hold of the offender and similarly there is an ambiguity as to the applicability of law
for that particular offence. Additionally cross country jurisdiction is another challenge faced
in the cyber space, since determining the jurisdiction or the origin of the crime is highly
impossible. Unethical hackers should be given an opportunity since they possess expertise in
the cyber misconducts in order to combat the ever increasing online crimes; judiciary and the
legislation should act hand in hand for framing and better implementations of laws so that the
laws in place act as tools to punish wrong-doers. India should be a signatory to more and
more international conventions dealing with cross country jurisdictions.
In comparatively lesser challenges were faced in real world than virtual world, hence there is
scope for amendments and development in the field of cyber law.