The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967
CHAPTER IV: PUNISHMENT FOR TERRORIST ACTIVITIES
Section 17: Punishment For Raising Funds For Terrorist Act
Bare Act
17 Punishment for raising funds for terrorist act - Whoever, in India or in a foreign country, directly or indirectly, raises or provides funds or collects funds, whether from a legitimate or illegitimate source, from any person or persons or attempts to provide to, or raises or collects funds for any person or persons, knowing that such funds are likely to be used, in full or in part by such person or persons or by a terrorist organisation or by a terrorist gang or by an individual terrorist to commit a terrorist act, notwithstanding whether such funds were actually used or not for commission of such act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.
Explanation - For the purpose of this section,
- (a) participating, organising or directing in any of the acts stated therein shall constitute an offence;
- (b) raising funds shall include raising or collecting or providing funds through production or smuggling or circulation of high quality counterfeit Indian currency;
- (c) raising or collecting or providing funds, in any manner for the benefit of, or, to an individual terrorist, terrorist gang or terrorist organisation for the purpose not specifically covered under section 15 shall also be construed as an offence.
Simplified Act
Explanation of Section 17 - Punishment for raising funds for terrorist acts:
If a person in India or abroad directly or indirectly collects, provides, or tries to collect or provide money, and they know that this money might be used by an individual, group, or organization to carry out a terrorist activity, they will be committing a crime. This is true whether the funds are from legal or illegal sources, and regardless of whether the money was actually used for terrorism. The punishment for this crime is… Read the complete text with KanoonGPT Pro.
Explanation using examples
Imagine a scenario where an individual, John, owns a chain of small convenience stores in India. John is approached by an acquaintance who is covertly associated with a terrorist organization. The acquaintance asks John to help by providing a portion of his store's earnings as a donation to what he falsely claims is a charity for underprivileged children. However, John becomes suspicious of the true nature of this so-called charity and decides to investigate further.
John discovers that the funds provided to this organization are actually being used to support a terrorist group. Despite this knowledge, if John decides to proceed and donates money from his business, he would be directly raising funds for a terrorist act, as defined by Section 17 of The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. John's actions would be considered an offence under this law, and he could be liable for a minimum of five years to life imprisonment, as well as a fine, even if the funds he provided were not ultimately used for a terrorist act.
