‘Women take trains at night, Mumbai considered safer,’ HC says molester deserves jail-term

Justice Dangre on October 19 held that the act of the accused must be viewed in all seriousness, and rightly, the magistrate as well as the sessions judge took cognisance of evidence presented to them, and convicted and sentenced the accused.

The bench was hearing an interim plea in criminal revision application by one Mayur Suryakant Ghankutkar, who was convicted by the magistrate in July 2019 for committing the offence punishable under Indian Penal Code Section 354(A)(1)(i) (sexual harassment of the nature of unwelcome physical contact), and was sentenced to a six-month jail term. On September 26, the sessions court upheld the magistrate’s order and dismissed Ghankutkar’s appeal.

The accused was on bail during the trial and the sentence was suspended after the trial termination, till the appeal period.

Justice Dangre said that she was not satisfied with Desai’s plea to suspend the sentence and release the accused on bail “for a simple reason” that the “offence against the applicant held to be proved by the magistrate, and the commission of offence cannot be considered to be of minimum gravity”.

The High Court will hear the revision application for the final hearing in the week commencing from December 11.