Sexual Assault
Holding girl's hands and opening pant zip not sexual assault: Bombay HC
Mumbai/IBNS: In another controversial order, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has said holding a minor girl's hands and opening the zip of pants does not amount to sexual offence, media reports said.
A single bench of Justice Pushpa Ganediwala made this observation on Jan 15 while passing an order on an appeal filed by a 50-year old man challenging a session court order which convicted him for sexual assaulting and molesting a five-year old girl.
Libnus Kujur, the convict, was sentenced to five years in jail.
"The acts of 'holding the hands of the prosecutrix (victim)', or 'opened zip of the pant' as has been allegedly witnessed by the prosecution witness (mother of the girl), in the opinion of this court, does not fit in the definition of 'sexual assault'," Justice Ganediwala said as quoted by NDTV.
In the same month, Justice Ganediwala controversially said in a ruling that there must be a "skin-to-skin contact with sexual intent" to be considered as an act of sexual assault.
However, the controversial order has been put on hold by the Supreme Court.
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