Cases of playing with the dignity of women keep coming to the fore. This is the reason why a law has been made to ensure that the dignity of the girl child is not violated. But sometimes people make a little mistake in understanding the law. Recently a similar case has come to the fore. The Bombay High Court has given a verdict that merely rubbing a hand on the head and back of a minor girl cannot be termed as sexual assault. Here the court also said that if the person who does this does not have sexual intent, then a criminal case cannot be registered against him.
The case which was being heard was going on since 2012. Then the accused himself was 18 years old. The girl who made this allegation was 12 years old at the time of the incident. Now the accused is 28 years old and has been acquitted by the court.
What is the whole matter?
The Bombay High Court issued this order on 10 February and it was made public on 13 March. The single bench of Justice Bharti Dangre has given its decision. As we said this incident is in 2012. At that time, the accused patted the victim's head and back and said, "You have grown up". The victim complained that on March 15, 2012, the accused had come to Victim's house to deliver some documents. There the accused put his hand on the victim's head and back and the victim got scared. At that time she raised an alarm.
Justice Bharti said in her judgment, "To hurt the dignity of the woman, first of all, his intention is necessary. Such is not the case here. The accused did not do anything other than this. The Victim herself has said that the accused only hit her on the head." He had pat on the back of the victim. Neither the accused nor the victim said that there was any wrong intention behind that act. There was an incident after which the victim started feeling bad."
The judgment further said, "The opposition has not been able to present any evidence that the accused has committed sexual assault with the Victim or that his intention was wrong. There is a lack of evidence in this case. The matter would have come to the fore in this case if the accused had such an intention. It cannot be understood on what basis section 354 has been invoked and sought to be proved. Here it is proved that by touching the girl the accused Was scared."
In this case, the accused said that he had said "she has grown up" because he has seen his victim since childhood. According to the court, this was an impromptu action and not some kind of sexual assault.
One thing to be understood here is that the court has also taken into consideration the age of the accused. A police case was registered against the accused on the girl's cry and he was also sentenced to 6 months by the trial court. Against his conviction, the accused appealed in the High Court where he was acquitted.
In this case, it is also important to understand that many times we touch the people around us without any purpose. That doesn't mean that we have a notion of doing something wrong with the other person. Yes, this type of physical touch should be avoided as much as possible.
