Holding a woman’s hand, pulling her and saying ‘I love you’ amounts to outraging her modesty: Chhattisgarh HC

The Chhattisgarh High Court has ruled that holding a woman’s hand, pulling her, and saying “I love you” amount to outraging her modesty under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).The case relates to a man who was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment by a trial court after being found guilty under various provisions of the IPC and the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He was 19-years-old at the time of the incident.The man was convicted for holding the victim’s hand, pulling her towards him and saying “I love you” when she was returning from school.Justice Naresh Kumar Chandravanshi, while hearing an appeal filed against the man’s conviction, held that the act amounts to outraging the victim’s modesty.“In the instant case, the appellant not only held the hand of the victim, rather he also pulled her towards him by saying ‘I love you’. Such behaviour of a young boy with any girl particularly of rural area is considered highly objectionable,” the court observed in its order.While upholding the conviction, the court modified the sentence, reducing it from three years to one year. It noted that the accused was a 19-year-old boy at the time of the incident and that, apart from holding the victim’s hand, pulling her and saying “I love you”, he had not committed any other objectionable act.



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