12/2/23, 2:42 PM Analysis Of White Collar Crimes In India - iPleaders 12/2/23, 2:42 PM Analysis Of White Collar Crimes In India

12/2/23, 2:42 PM Analysis Of White Collar Crimes In India - iPleaders

Blackmail: Blackmail means demand for money by threatening some person to cause
physical injury or exposing his secrets.

Analysis Of White Collar Crimes In India Bribery: Bribery means offering money, goods or any gift to someone in order to
By Guest Post - May 4, 2016
have control over his actions. It is a crime whether someone offers or accepts a bribe.

Computer Fraud: Computer frauds are such frauds which involve hacking or stealing
information of some other person.

Embezzlement: When someone entrusted with money or property uses it for his own
use, it is embezzlement.

Extortion: When a person illegally obtains someone’s property by actual or

threatened force.

Insider-Trading: When someone uses the confidential information to trade in shares

of publicly held corporations.

Money-Laundering: Money Laundering means the concealment of origin of illegally

obtained money.

Tax fraud: Tax fraud means evading tax by providing wrong information in tax forms
or illegally transferring property in order to avoid tax.

White Collar Crime is pervasive in almost all the professions and occupations in the
In this blog post, Aashish Ahuja writes about white collar crimes in India.
society. These crimes are common to the business world and Indian trade and violation
of Foreign Exchange Regulation Act and export and import laws are resorted to make
Meaning of White Collar Crime: What is it huge profits.

White Collar Crimes are the crimes committed by a person of high social status and
Causes of White-Collar Crime
respectability during the course of his occupation. It is a crime that is committed by
salaried professional workers or persons in business and that usually involves a form of The general perception is that the white collar crimes are committed because of greed or
financial theft or fraud. The term “White Collar Crime” was defined by sociologist Edwin economic instability. But these crimes are also committed because of situational pressure
Sutherland in 1939. These crimes are non-violent crimes committed by business people or the inherent characteristic of getting more than others. However, there are various
through deceptive activities who are able to access large amounts of money for the reasons for white collar crimes.
purpose of financial gain.
Not really a crime: Some offenders convince themselves that the actions performed
White Collar Crimes are committed by people who are involved in otherwise, lawful by them are not crimes as the acts involved does not resemble street crimes.
businesses and covers a wide range of activities. The perpetrators hold respectable
positions in the communities unless their crime is discovered. The laws relating to white-
collar crimes depends upon the exact nature of the crime committed.

Types of White Collar Crimes

There are different types of white collar crimes. Some of them are as follows:

Bank Fraud: Bank Fraud means to engage in such activities in order to defraud a
bank or using illegal means to obtain assets held by financial institutions.

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crimes are increasing with the development of new websites. The areas affected by these
crimes are banking and financial institutions, industry, business etc.

Thus crime is an act or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable under
the law. As the white collar crimes are increasing on daily basis, it injures the society on
a large scale because the laws are not properly administered and therefore there is a
need to curb the factors that are helping in the commission of such crimes.

Laws relating to White Collar Crimes

The government of India has introduced various regulatory legislations, the breach of
which will amount to white-collar criminality. Some of these legislations are Essential
Commodities Act 1955, the Industrial (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951.,The
Import and Exports (Control) Act, 1947, the Foreign Exchange (Regulation) Act, 1974,
Companies Act, 1956, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

The Indian Penal Code contains provisions to check crimes such as Bank Fraud,
Insurance fraud, credit card fraud etc. In case of money laundering several steps have
been taken by the government of India to tackle this problem. The Reserve Bank of India
has issued directions to be strictly followed by the banks under KYC (Know Your
Customer) guidelines. The banks and financial institutions are required to maintain the
records of transactions for a period of ten years.

In order to tackle with computer-related crimes, Information Technology Act, 2000 has
been enacted to provide legal recognition to the authentication of information exchanged
in respect of commercial transactions.

click above
Section 43 and 44 of Information Technology Act prescribes the penalty for the following
Not realizable: Some people justify themselves in committing crimes as they feel offences:
that the government regulations do not understand the practical problems of
competing in the free enterprise system. Unauthorised copying of an extract from any data.

Unauthorised access and downloading files.

Lack of awareness: One of the main reason of white collar crime is the lack of
Introduction of viruses or malicious programmes.
awareness of people. The nature of the crime is different from the traditional crimes
and people rarely understand it though they are the worst victims of crime. Damage to computer system or computer network.

Denial of access to an authorised person to a computer system.

Greed: Greed is another motivation of the commission of crime. Some people think
that others are also violating the laws and so it is not bad if they will do the same. Providing assistance to any person to facilitate unauthorised access to a computer.

Necessity: Necessity is another factor of committing crimes. People commit white Though the focus of Information Technology Act is not on cybercrime as such, this Act

collar crimes in order to satisfy their ego or support their family. has certain provisions that deal with white collar crimes. Chapter XI deals with the
offence of cyber crime and chapter IX deals with penalties and adjudication of crime.
Apart from this, many issues are unresolved due to lack of focus. Some of them are:

White Collar Crimes in India

White Collar Crimes are rapidly increasing in our country with the advancement of
commerce and technology. The recent developments in the technology have given new
dimensions to computer related crimes known as cyber crimes. As such, the white collar

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Inapplicability

Qualification for appointment as adjudicating officer not prescribed

Definition of hacking

No steps to curb internet piracy

Lack of international cooperation

Power of police to enter and search limited to public places

Absence of guidelines for investigation of cyber crime

There are some measures to deal with white-collar crimes. Some of them are, creating
public awareness of crimes through media or press and other audio-visual aids and legal
literacy programmes. Special tribunals should be constituted with power to sentence the
offenders for at least 5 years and conviction should result in heavy fines rather than
arrest and detention of criminals. Unless the people will strongly detest such crimes, it is
not possible to control this growing menace.

Conclusion
It is clear that due to advancement of science and technology newer form of criminality
known as white-collar crime has arisen. The term “white-collar crime” has not been
defined in the code. But the dimensions of white-collar crime are so wide that after
analysing the provisions of Indian Penal Code 1860, we may conclude that certain
offence under Indian Penal Code is closely linked with white collar crimes such as bribery,
corruption and adulteration of food, forgery etc. The provisions of Indian Penal Code
dealing with white-collar crimes should be amended to enhance punishment particularly
fine in tune with changed socio-economic conditions. The special Acts dealing with white
collar crimes and the provisions of Indian Penal Code should be harmoniously interpreted
to control the problem of white-collar crimes.

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References
http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-white-collar-crime-definition-statistics-
examples.html

http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/white-collar-crime.html

http://public.getlegal.com/legal-info-center/white-collar-crime/

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