A sessions court on Tuesday sentenced two men in their late twenties to a year’s imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 each on them for stalking two girls, one among them a minor and insisting that the girls share their mobile numbers.
The incident had taken place on Nov 25, 2013, when one of the victims, who worked in a packaging company, was returning from work in Sakinaka. Around 6.30 pm, she headed to her home with her friend. Both girls noticed that two persons unknown to them were following them. The girls stopped at a vada pav stall and the boys had come there and started demanding their mobile numbers and speaking in the lewd language. They proceeded to another location and the boys continued to follow them and again demanded their mobile numbers, threatening the girls that if they did not share their numbers, they would follow them again the next day. The girls then reached a bus stop where they met a younger brother of one of them and narrated their ordeal to him. He had confronted the boys and the latter had gotten beaten up by the public. Police arrived at the scene and then a complaint was lodged against them.
Special Judge under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Jayashri Pulate stated in the order that the conduct of both accused sufficiently reveals that on the day of the incident, they repeatedly followed the victims on their way from the office to home. It added that the victims by ignoring them had shown their disinterest in talking to or contacting them. Therefore, it stated that both need to be convicted for the offences.
