Indian court rules that suitcase not taking off without clothes is not sexual assault

Indian court rules that suitcase not taking off without clothes is not sexual assault

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In a ruling last week, Bombay High Court Judge Pushpa Ganediwala found that a 39-year-old man had not been guilty of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl as he did not take off her clothes. did not, which means there was no skin to the skin. velkontak.

According to court documents, the man brought the child to his home on the pretext that he had given her guava in December 2016. While he was there, according to her verdict, he touched her chest and tried to remove her underwear.

He was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to three years in prison in a lower court, but then appealed to the high court.

In her ruling on January 19, Judge Ganediwala ruled that his act ‘should not fall within the definition of’ sexual assault ‘, which includes a minimum imprisonment of three years which can be extended to five years.

“Given the strict nature of the punishment provided for the offense, according to the court, stricter evidence and serious allegations are needed,” she wrote. The Child Protection Act Against Sexual Offenses in India, 2012, does not explicitly state that contact with skin on skin is necessary to constitute the crime of sexual assault.

Judge Ganediwala acquitted the accused of sexual assault, but found him guilty on the lesser charge of molestation and sentenced him to one year in prison.

“It is the basic principle of criminal justice that the punishment for an offense should be proportionate to the seriousness of the crime,” she said.

India’s sexual assault problem

Indians addressed social media after the decision of the High Court in Bombay was announced to question the logic of the court decision, setting a new precedent. Other high courts and lower courts across the country will now have to follow the ruling of the Supreme Court in Bombay.

The National Commission for Women said it intended to pose a legal challenge to the ruling, which he said would “have an impact on various provisions regarding women’s safety and security.”

Karuna Nundy, a lawyer at the Supreme Court of India, the country’s highest court, has asked that judges who pronounce rulings that are “completely contrary to established law” and basic rights be retrained.

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“Judgments like these contribute to impunity for crimes against girls,” she said. tweeted.

Ranjana Kumari, the director of the Center for Non-Profit Social Research, which advocates for women’s rights in India, said the verdict was “shameful, outrageous, shocking and without judicial caution.”

Sexual assault is a major problem in India, where sexual crimes are often brutal and widespread, but are often dealt with badly under the country’s legal system. Based on official figures from 2018, the rape of a woman is reported every 16 minutes.
After a sensational case in 2012 when a 23-year-old student was raped and murdered in a New Delhi bus, legal reforms and worse penalties were instituted.

These included swift courts to move rape cases quickly through the justice system, an amended definition of rape to include anal and oral penetration, and the publication of new government guidelines intended to avoid the two-finger test that allegedly judged or a woman has recently had sexual intercourse.

But high-profile rape cases still made headlines. Last year, the number of cases sparked outrage, including the case of a 13-year-old girl who was raped and strangled to death in a field, and an 86-year-old woman who was allegedly raped while waiting for the milkman. .
Activists have pointed to ongoing issues in the legal system. Under the legal system of India, for example, there is a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment when sexual abuse of a transgender person is sentenced.

CNN’s Swati Gupta and Manveena Suri reported.

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