Bombay HC: Unzipping Pants & Holding Child’s Hand NOT Sexual Assault

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The news

Bombay HC does it again..!!
- Justice Pushpa V. Ganediwala, who earlier interpreted sexual assault as only skin-to-skin contact, quashed another conviction against another accused under POCSO provisions.

The culprit Libnus, was accused of trespassing into a woman’s house and molesting her five-year-old daughter in February 2018.
The mother of the Child alleged that, she saw Libnus in the house, holding her daughter’s hand and trying to take her to one of the rooms in her house.
- Woman said, her daughter informed her that the accused exposed himself and “asked her to come to the bed for sleeping”.
- The women also “noticed that the zip of the pant of the accused was opened”.

The accused Libnus was convicted by sessions court in October 2020, under
- IPC section 354A (sexual harassment) and IPC Section 448 (house trespass)
- POCSO section 8 (sexual assault), section 10 (aggravated sexual assault) and section 12 (sexual harassment)
Libnus sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment along with a Rs 25,000 fine.

On appeal, Bombay HC held, “The acts of ‘holding the hands of the prosecutrix’, or ‘opened zip of the pant’ as has been allegedly witness in the opinion of this court, does not fit in the definition of ‘sexual assault” under the POCSO Act, 2012.
Justice Pushpa Ganediwala modified the accused’s sentence to the period already spent in prison (5 months) and ordered that he be set free.