HC won’t quash molestation case, says need to stop the backtracking

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday refused to quash a complaint lodged against a city businessman for allegedly outraging modesty of a 23-year-old aspiring

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday refused to quash a complaint lodged against a city businessman for allegedly outraging modesty of a 23-year-old aspiring television actress.

HT Image

“We want to stop this practice of people changing their minds according to their whims and fancies,” said the division bench of justice Abhay Oka and justice Amjad Sayed, referring to the complainant’s statement in her affidavit that she had second thoughts about the episode and decided not to prosecute the businessman.

“In fact, this is abuse of the process of law,” said the bench. “People lodge complaints setting criminal law in motion and then change their minds simply saying that they don’t want to prosecute the matter.”

This is a very serious matter and calls for investigation, the judges said, rejecting the plea filed by the 40-year-old businessman, who sought quashing of the first information report (FIR) registered at Amboli police station.

His counsel said that the businessman and the complainant were in love and they have now parted ways and decided not to interfere in each other’s lives.

The judges, however, felt that the incident was a serious one and needed to be investigated, considering the fact that the complainant is not a citizen of India.

The woman in her complaint had alleged that she knew the businessman and after a fight in March 2016, she had stopped communicating with him. She alleged that on April 5, the businessman sent her a message, but she refused to meet him.

The next day, she alleged, he reached her house and abused and manhandled her, after which she lodged the complaint. Acting on her complaint, the police booked the man under various sections of the IPC, including outraging modesty of a woman.