Man gets 3 years' RI for sexually harassing minor colleague

A local court Thursday sentenced a real estate company owner to three years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually harassing his 17-year-old female assistant in 2014. Additional Sessions court judge Bharti Kale held Umashankar Rao (37) guilty under IPC sections 354A (sexual harassment) and 354B (assault or use of criminal force to woman) and awarded the sentence, additional public prosecutor Rakesh Tiwari said.

The victim had told the court that two days after she joined the office, Rao had asked her to come for work on May 18, 2014, which was a Sunday. When she refused to come, he told her that some other colleagues would also be coming. However, when the girl reached the office, she found nobody except Rao there, Tiwari said.

The accused told her that he was going out and asked her to complete some work before he came back. The accused returned in the afternoon with a beer can, the prosecution told the court. He then forced the girl to drink beer and started touching her inappropriately while also playing pornographic content on his laptop, the prosecution added.

Thereafter, he even tried to sexually assault her but she managed to escape, the prosecutor said. The minor lodged a complaint with Worli police station the next day, the court was told.

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