(1) No
person shall make, or cause to be made, criminal misappropriation of
property.
(2) For the purposes of sub-section (1), a person who does
any of the following acts shall be considered to commit criminal
misappropriation of property:
(a) To dishonestly possess and use, cause loss and damage
to or misappropriate a property belonging to another
person or rent, sell or dispose it without consent of that
other person.
Provided that if the real owner of an adjoining
land uses the property belonging to another person, by
mistakenly making normal encroachment of the
boundary, he or she shall not be considered to commit
the offence referred to in this clause.
(b) To dishonestly appropriate or otherwise convert any
property not in the possession of any other person to his
or her own use, knowing or having the means of
discovering the owner of such property, or without
returning such property to such owner within a
reasonable time, or without giving notice to the owner to
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claim the property or without waiting the owner of such
property until a reasonable time.
Provided that where the finder in good faith
appropriates a property to his or her own use when the
owner of the property is not discovered despite
reasonable efforts or the owner does not claim the
property within a reasonable time after the giving of
notice, he or she shall not be considered to commit the
offence referred to in this Section.
(3) A person who commits, or causes to be committed, the
offence referred to in sub section (1) shall be liable to the following
sentence:
(a) A sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding
three years or a fine not exceeding thirty thousand
rupees or both the sentences, in the case of criminal
misappropriation of property which was in the
possession of a deceased person at the time of that
person's demise and has not since been in the possession
of his or her legal successor, or criminal
misappropriation of property belonging to a child, a
person of unsound mind due to mental or physical
illness, or a person above seventy-five years of age,
(b) A sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding
one year or a fine not exceeding ten thousand rupees or
both the sentences, in the case of criminal
misappropriation of property in cases other than that set
forth in clause (a).
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(4) If any property subjected to criminal misappropriation
under this Section is in a returnable condition, the person who so
misappropriates shall return the property to the concerned owner or
to his or her immediate successor if the owner is dead.