A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Court in Mumbai has sentenced a 19-year-old man to two years of rigorous imprisonment for grabbing a minor girl’s hand and saying “I love you” to her.
Ashwini Lokhande, the special POCSO judge, stated that the accused’s actions clearly outraged the modesty of the 14-year-old victim. The court’s ruling, delivered on July 30, found the accused guilty of harassment under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), according to a PTI report.
Reports indicate that the minor girl’s mother filed a complaint with the Sakinaka police station in September 2019. The mother reported that her daughter, who had gone to a local shop to buy tea dust, returned home in tears. Upon questioning, the girl revealed that a man had approached her, grabbed her hand, and said “I love you.” During the trial, the prosecution presented four witnesses, including the girl and her mother, to establish the accused’s guilt.
The accused later claimed innocence, asserting that he was in a relationship with the girl and that she had called him to meet on the day of the incident. However, the court observed that if the girl had been in a relationship with the accused, she would not have reported the incident to her mother out of fear. The judge noted that when the mother confronted the accused, he threatened her and told her to do as she wished.
The court also remarked that the testimonies of the girl and her mother were consistent and no evidence had been presented to contradict their accounts. The judge concluded, “It is established that the accused applied criminal force to the victim by holding her hand while she was proceeding to bring tea dust. The words uttered by the accused certainly outraged the modesty of the victim who was 14 years old at the time of the incident.”
