Section 301 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860:
If a person, by doing anything which he intends or knows to be likely to cause death, commits culpable homicide by causing the death of any person, whose death he neither intends nor knows himself to be likely to cause, the culpable homicide committed by the offender is of the description of which it would have been if he had caused the death of the person, whose death he intended or knew himself to be likely to cause.
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ADVERTISEMENTS:
Principle and Scope:
Section 301 embodies what the English authors describe as the doctrine of transfer of malice or transmigration of motive. Under the Section if A intends to kill B but kills C whose death he neither intends nor knows himself to be likely to cause, the intention to kill is by law attributed to him.
If A aims his shot at B but it misses B either because B moves out of the range of the shot, or because the shot misses the mark and hits some other person C whether within the sight or out of sight, than under Section 301 is deemed to have hit C with the intention to kill him.
