In a disturbing incident, a 24-year-old man in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, was arrested after he flashed a law student on the pretext of asking for an address.
The incident occurred on January 22 when the woman, who works for a private law firm in the city’s Navrangpura area, was stopped by the accused, who lives in the nearby colony on Usmanpura, The Times of India reported. The 21-year-old law student had been visiting a shopping complex in the city when the man accosted her on a scooter and asked her for an address.
According to the report, the woman said she did not know the address but nevertheless tried to help the man. In the meantime, however, the man started making derogatory comments and flashed the woman.
The woman panicked but before she could do anything about it, the man had already fled the scene.
Cops, however, were quick to respond after the woman lodged a complaint with the women’s wing of the city’s police. Navrangpur police station looked into the matter. The accused who goes by the name of Chirag Bhati was arrested after cops went through CCTV footage from the area to zero in on the culprit.
Upon being questioned, Bhati admitted to the crime but gave a strange reason for committing the crime. According to Bhati, his wife was pregnant and he had not had sex with her or anyone else for over three months, which is why he decided to flash the law student.
Bhati has been booked under sexual harassment charges.
The incident comes soon after a string of controversial judgements by a High Court judge who recently ruled that groping did not constitute as sexual assault under POCSO unless there was “skin to skin” contact. The Bombay High Court verdict was stayed by the Supreme Court after protests. But the judge soon came out with yet another controversial interpretation of sexual assault when it deemed that “unzipping pants or holding a minor’s hand” did not amount to the same under the POCSO Act.
The verdicts have led to a debate about what constitutes as sexual assault in India.
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