MUMBAI (Metro Rail & Steel): In a case concerning the molestation of a woman aboard a suburban local train in 2019, a Mumbai court has delivered a one-day sentence to a 49-year-old man. Metropolitan Magistrate B K Gawande, in an order dated December 4, deemed the offence “heinous in nature,” denying the accused the benefit of probation.
According to case records, the incident occurred on August 13, 2019, when the woman was allegedly molested multiple times by the accused while traveling on a Western Railway local train. Subsequently, the woman and her brother reprimanded the accused and brought him to the Bandra railway police station. The court emphasized that the evidence presented by the complainant woman and other witnesses clearly established the occurrence of the incident.
“The evidence provided by the informant woman conclusively proved that the accused committed the act of molestation with the intent and knowledge that it would outrage her modesty,” stated the court. Concluding that the prosecution had sufficiently proven the accused’s violation under section 354 (outraging modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code beyond any reasonable doubt, the court dismissed the accused’s plea for probation, asserting the heinous nature of the offence.
Citing the gravity of the act, the court noted, “The accused was found guilty of outraging the modesty of the informant woman, indicating that the accused could have harbored worse intentions.”
The judgment directed the man to serve the sentence till the rising of the court, coupled with a fine of Rs 1,000. Furthermore, the court rejected the accused’s claim of being falsely implicated, stating that there was no evidence of any prior personal enmity between the woman and the accused.
