Wearing towel in own house is not a crime, says court

Mumbai: The special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) has acquitted a man, who was booked for allegedly sexually abusing his neighbour, a four-year-old girl, in whose presence he had roamed around wearing a towel

Mumbai: The special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) has acquitted a man, who was booked for allegedly sexually abusing his neighbour, a four-year-old girl, in whose presence he had roamed around wearing a towel.

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The court upheld that the 50-year-old driver roaming in a towel in his own house was not out of sexual intent.

“The accused had taken a bath and came out with a towel wrapped around his waist. I do not find that there was any sexual intent on the part of the accused. It is pertinent to note that the accused had a towel around his waist in his own house, it was not with sexual intent as he just had a bath,” special judge Priti Kumar Ghule observed, while acquitting the man.

As per the prosecution case, the accused and complainant are neighbours and the incident took place on March 2, 2018, on the day of Rangpanchami-Holi.

The complainant had alleged that their daughter was playing Holi at around 1 pm when the accused took her to his house. As the girl did not return home, the parents went looking for her at the house of the accused.

The accused contended that the girl used to call him abba and would eat with him every day. The driver claimed that he and the complainants had a common water connection because of which there was a quarrel and the complainant had implicated him in a false case.

The prosecution examined the girl and her mother to prove the case. The mother had claimed that the door of the house was open and she saw the accused unwrap his towel and flash his private parts to the girl and hold the girl’s neck.

The court, however, said the accused cannot do all three things together. Besides, the court said the girl never mentioned about the accused flashing at her. The court said the prosecution failed to bring any other independent witnesses to prove the case.

The court noted that the neighbours had good relations and the girl would go to the house of the accused every day in the morning and used to have breakfast there as well.

“The girl used to go to the house of the accused, and they would feed her. This shows that the child goes happily to the family of the accused. The accused’s family loved feeding the child as neighbours,” the court said, adding that “the child had gone to the house of the accused only for 10 minutes when he had taken bath. The evidence of the complainant is not consistent as per her complaint given to the police.”