MUMBAI: Convicting and sentencing a 31-year-old Worli man to six months imprisonment for sexually harassing a 66-year-old woman by showing the middle finger and screaming “f**k yourself bloody b***h” to her and her son in a road rage incident at Hughes Road in 2018, a magistrate’s court has said that through the crime, the woman’s fundamental right to live with dignity was attacked.
“Every woman in a society has the right to live with dignity. In a crime which is related to the modesty of women, it is an attack on their fundamental rights to live with dignity,” Girgaum metropolitan magistrate Nadeem A Patel said.
It is undeniable that the individual behaved boorishly and deserved to be penalized. However, he could have been reprimanded in other ways such as being asked to do community service, pay a monetary fine or have his driver’s license suspended. Sending him to jail for six months seems excessive.
The court refused to let the accused, Aniket Patil, off on a bond of good behaviour. The magistrate said that he was grown up enough to know the consequences of his actions.
“In such a case, if unwarranted leniency is shown to the accused, it will send the wrong signal to society,” the court said.
Road rage: Any woman can be victim of molestation twice, says magistrate
Therefore, the accused should not be released on a good behaviour bond or on fine,” the court said. Patil was also fined Rs 1,000. The maximum sentence attracted in the case was one-year jail. Among the four witnesses cited by public prosecutor B U Gavali were the woman and her son.
Refuting the defence argument that the woman had previously filed a sexual harassment case against another accused, the court said, “Filing of one prior FIR related to sexual harassment does not mean that the lady is in a habit of filing such FIRs to extract the money. Any woman can be the victim of molestation twice. It is sad and unfortunate but true that she is the victim of molestation twice by two different persons.”
In the 18-page judgment copy, the court also explained why showing the middle finger to a woman is a vulgar gesture that amounts to insulting her modesty — originally the symbol meant to threaten someone with sexual violence.
The woman told the court that on September 17, 2018, her son and she were going to their office by car. Around 11.40am, when they reached Cadbury Junction, a red car suddenly came from the left side and pushed them towards the divider. The woman said this continued for about 100m distance. Thereafter, when they went on to Hughes Road, they noticed that a car was trying to overtake them. Moments later they stopped at the signal. The woman said that the red car stopped on their left side and the driver rolled down the window and showed them the middle finger. The woman told her son to “maintain peace”, but the accused abused her. He then tried to drive away, but her son blocked him with his car. Meanwhile, a traffic cop reached the spot and Patil was taken to Gamdevi police station.
The defence claimed that though it was the woman’s son who abused Patil, he had used his influence as a lawyer to register a false FIR. Refuting this, the court said that an advocate can also be a victim of the crime. “Even no lady of 66 years will put her character at stake to file false FIR on petty issues. It is also not a case acceptable to prudent man…to use his mother to file false FIR of sexual harassment on road rage,” the court said.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/road-rage-in-mumbai-6-month-jail-for-middle-finger-swearing/articleshow/88154538.cms
