A Mumbai court observed that following a girl and repeatedly saying ‘aaja aaja’ to her despite her clear indication of disinterest in him is sexual harassment.
A sessions court in Dindoshi made the observation while hearing a case related to an incident that happened in 2015.
The court convicted the accused, a 32-year-old man, under a provision of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
What was the case
A 15-year-old Class X student alleged that the accused used to follow her on the way to her tuition in September 2015. She told the court that when she was proceeding to her French tuitions by walking, the accused, then in his mid-twenties, started following her on a bicycle uttering ‘aaja aaja’ (come, come) repeatedly and this continued for a couple of days.
The victim said on the first day, she had taken help from passersby on the street. They chased him and tried to catch but he managed to flee on his bicycle. She shared her ordeal with her tuition teacher and parents. This continued for a few days. Later, she spotted him working as a night watchman at an adjoining building. The girl identified the accused to her mother and she took up the matter with the police and filed a complaint resulting in the arrest of the accused in September 2015. Later the accused was granted bail in March 2016.
Citing that he has a wife and a three-year-old child and he is poor, he pleaded for leniency. However, Additional Sessions Judge AZ Khan sentenced him to the period he had already undergone as an undertrial between September 2015, when he was arrested and March 2016, when he secured bail.
