What an Inter-State Crime Is

In one line

An offence that crosses a State line, and a person who moves so that no single police force can see the whole of what he does.

The two halves of the topic

"Inter state crimes" is about the offence. Some part of it happens in one State and some part in another, or its effects are felt in a State other than the one where the act was done.

"and Criminals" is about the person. The offender who moves between States, whose record is scattered, and who is treated by the police record system as a distinct class.

They are different problems with different solutions. The offence raises questions of jurisdiction, of which court may try it and which police may investigate it. The person raises questions of records, of surveillance and of history sheets. An answer that treats them as one thing misses half the module.

The four kinds of inter-state offence

One offence, several States. A single course of conduct crossing a boundary. A kidnapping in Maharashtra with the victim confined in Madhya Pradesh; a consignment of narcotics moved from one State to another; a cheating carried out by telephone from one State on a victim in another.

One offender, several offences, several States. A gang that commits burglaries across a belt of districts in three States, each offence complete in itself, connected only by the offender and the method.

An offence whose effect crosses. A counterfeit note printed in one State and passed in another; a fraudulent transfer from an account in one State to an account in another.

An offender who flees. The offence is wholly within one State and the offender is arrested in another, which is a problem of arrest and custody rather than of the offence.

Only the first three are inter-state crimes properly so called. The fourth is an inter-state criminal problem, and the distinction is worth drawing because the law that answers each is different.

What makes them hard, in a sentence each

Jurisdiction. Which court may try it, which is answered by the territorial provisions of the Sanhita. See [Territorial Jurisdiction Under the Sanhita].

Police powers. An officer's powers are conferred by his State, and he does not carry them across a boundary as of right. See [Investigating Across a State Line].

Records. Before a national record system, a man's history in one State was invisible in another. See [Records, Coordination and the National Picture].

Consent. A central agency cannot simply enter a State. See [State Consent, General Consent, and Its Withdrawal].

And the constitutional root of all four. Police and public order are State subjects. See [Why the Constitution Makes Them Hard].