Man gets one year in jail for outraging modesty of girl

A court in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district on Friday sentenced a man to one-year imprisonment for outraging the modesty of a girl.

Munsiff Judicial Magistrate (first class), Chenani, Shafeeq Ahmed also imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 on convict Puran Sharma, a tea stall owner.

On April 18, 2016, a person moved a written complaint to the Station House Officer of police station Chenani alleging therein that she had sent her cousin to a shop to buy some groceries and when she was coming back, a man caught hold of her and outraged her modesty at his tea stall, according to the prosecution case.

Subsequently, Sharma was booked under section 354R of the RPC and investigation started.

After hearing additional public prosecutor Shallni Gupta and the counsel for the accused, the court observed that the crime against women, in whatever form, is a social evil and if perpetrators of such crime are dealt with leniently it would then not only encourage further escalation of crime but will become difficult to check or arrest the perpetrators of those crimes.

"So, it is not a case where the benefit of probation of offenders act can be granted to the convict," the judge said.

The court also noted that if the accused defaulted on paying the fine, he shall undergo simple imprisonment for one month.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)