Bombay High Court
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Monday acquitted two 19-year-old youths, saying that merely following a girl once would not be sufficient to hold that the offense of ‘stalking’ has been committed. However, the court upheld the conviction of one of them on molestation charges. The two were convicted by a sessions court in Akola in 2022 for molesting and stalking a 14-year-old girl in 2020. He was sentenced to five years in prison for molestation and three years for stalking.
What is the matter?
The prosecution case is that both of them stalked the girl and one of them had told her that he liked her and wanted to marry her. The girl complained to her mother, who raised the issue with the youth’s parents. However, after a few days, the young man who had expressed his love for the girl reached the victim’s house and molested her.
“It is right to find fault in molestation”
A single bench of Justice G A Sanap, in its judgment delivered in December 2024, a copy of which was made available on Monday, said that it is right to convict a youth on the charge of molestation, but it is wrong to convict another youth on the charge of stalking. Is.
The High Court said, “It is to be noted that for the offense of stalking the prosecution has to prove that the accused repeatedly or persistently stalked, watched or stalked someone directly or through electronic, digital media. Contacted.”
What did the bench say in the case?
The bench said that in view of this essential requirement of the offense of stalking, a single instance of stalking of the victim would not be sufficient to prove the offence. The bench also reduced the five-year sentence of a youth to the period he has already spent in jail since his arrest in 2022. (Language)
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