Ahmedabad : Gujarat High Court has quashed an FIR for abetment to sexual harassment against a businessman who allegedly did not pay heed to a woman’s complaint regarding molestation by another accused, and instead told her that she would have to succumb to inappropriate demands of she wanted to grow in business.
In 2016, the 32-year-old woman lodged an FIR with Ellisbridge police station accusing her senior of molesting her while they were touring different towns in Gujarat. The police invoked sections Sections 354, 354A, 354C, 354D and 114 of IPC.
After the hearing, Justice P M Raval quashed the charges against him and said that according to these sections of IPC, “the intention should be to aid the commission of a crime. She also accused him and another man of watching sexually explicit photos in her presence. She accused the first businessman of laughing out her complaints and instead telling her that if she wanted to grow in business, she would have to bear with such demands. Merely, by uttering the words that she will have to succumb to such polluted demands if she wants to grow in the business, without there being any intention, will not make the act of abetment of an offence if the petitioner did not know that the offence was being committed or contemplated. ”