Vidhara

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

§40Arrest by private person and procedure on such arrest

(1) Any private person may arrest or cause to be arrested any person who in his presence commits a non-bailable and cognizable offence, or any proclaimed offender, and, without unnecessary delay, but within six hours from such arrest, shall make over or cause to be made over any person so arrested to a police officer, or, in the absence of a police officer, take such person or cause him to be taken in custody to the nearest police station.

(2) If there is reason to believe that such person comes under the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 35, a police officer shall take him in custody.

(3) If there is reason to believe that he has committed a non-cognizable offence, and he refuses on the demand of a police officer to give his name and residence, or gives a name or residence which such officer has reason to believe to be false, he shall be dealt with under the provisions of section 39; but if there is no sufficient reason to believe that he has committed any offence, he shall be at once released.

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Source & version

Official text: Gazette of India via MHA (official)

Official Gazette text: The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (46 of 2023), English PDF as hosted by Ministry of Home Affairs (mha.gov.in, file 250884_2_english_01042024.pdf). Extracted via pdftotext 26.07 -bbox and @nexlex/ingest gazette-bbox parser on 2026-07-14. Automated parse; structural validation + spot verification; full clause-level proofread pending.

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