Guwahati: The Meghalaya High Court has observed that the act of holding the hands of a child and saying that her hands are beautiful cannot be considered an act of sexual assault under POCSO Act, LiveLaw reported.
The accused, as per the prosecution case, after asking for a glass of water from the victim, and on the victim bringing the water to him, grabbed a nine-year-old girl’s hand.
In her statement, the minor girl revealed that the man held her hand and stroked her hand and then said her hand is very beautiful.
The accused in a plea filed before Meghalaya High Court contended that merely because a 55-year-old man appreciated the hands of a young girl saying that her hands are beautiful cannot by any stretch of the imagination be considered an offence under any law.
The State opposed the petition contending that the fact that the accused did not take the glass of water which was dropped by the victim only goes to indicate the ulterior intention to make out a case under Sections 9(m) and 7 of the POCSO Act.
Justice W. Diengdoh referred to the relevant provisions of the POCSO Act as well as the judgment of the Supreme Court in Attorney General of India v. Satish & Anr.
“It is to be noted that the place of occurrence is located near the residence of the alleged victim girl. Near the place, a group of persons were playing cards and while she was playing the petitioner asked her for a glass of water to which she complied by bringing the said water to him. It is apparent that the place of occurrence is a public place with a number of people present and the alleged incident happened in broad daylight.
“The fact that the petitioner had held and commented on the hands of the alleged victim girl which contact is probably of a few seconds, the same cannot be read to imply that there is sexual intent on the part of the petitioner. At best, a non-sexual purpose of the contact can be presumed,” the court said.