The Bombay High Court has recently quashed an FIR filed against a man arrested in August for misbehaving with his girlfriend’s minor daughter during a trip to Shirdi. The FIR was quashed after the girl informed the court that she was forced to make such an allegation by her father, maternal uncle and aunt. In September, the girl's maternal grandmother had filed a complaint with the Samata Nagar police station, alleging that her daughter's boyfriend had misbehaved with her granddaughter in Shirdi in 2013-2014. The man was booked under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of IPC and under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. However, the woman later moved court seeking the quashing of the FIR. On August 27, the grandmother told the court that the story narrated by her granddaughter was false and concocted and was told on the instance of her father, maternal uncle and aunt. She added according to her granddaughter, she had never gone to Shirdi with the accused. The petitioner told the court when she realised her mistake, she approached the court for quashing of the FIR. A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Bharati Dangre, said: "The petitioner/complainant and the victim/her granddaughter are present before us. We had an interaction with them. Both of them stated that the incident in question as alleged in the FIR never occurred and the victim girl made false narration of the same at the instance of her father and maternal uncle and aunty."
