Mumbai: Families and victims struggle to report sexual assault and harassment cases in a traditional society like India, hence such matters cannot be quashed merely due to delay in lodging an FIR, the Bombay High Court said in its order while refusing relief to a man accused of molesting his domestic help.
A single bench of Justice Ranjitsinha Bhonsale dismissed the petition filed by a 58-year-old Kerala-based man seeking to have an FIR registered against him in 2019 — for allegedly outraging the modesty of his domestic help – quashed, reported PTI.
The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint that the accused allegedly molested the victim when she went to his house for her daily work on March 10, 2019. The woman managed to escape his clutches and informed her husband about the incident.
The woman lodged a complaint against the accused on April 2, after which the FIR was registered.
In his petition to the high court, the accused questioned the 23-day delay in filing a complaint, and claimed that he was falsely implicated by the woman and her husband who had demanded money from him.
The accused also claimed that CCTV footage available from the housing society showed the woman leaving the building in a calm and composed manner.
However, the high court refused to accept both the contentions and said prima facie a case was made out against the accused.
“In a traditional society like ours, unfortunately, many families find it exceedingly and extremely difficult to initiate even a genuine criminal prosecution when such nature of offences are involved,” the judge observed.
“In my opinion, cases relating to offences against women and similar cases, the criminal prosecution ought not to be thrown out on the sole ground of unexplained delay unless the delay is attributed to some mala fides, personal vengeance or vendetta which is prima facie made out,” the judge said.
