New Delhi: The Bombay high court has recently held that merely following a girl or a victim once will not amount to stalking.
Single-judge Justice Govind Sanap of the Nagpur Bench of the high court delivered the ruling on December 5, 2024, in which he held that such an act will not amount to stalking under the section 354-D of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the POCSO Act, reported LiveLaw.
Justice Sanap gave the ruling while acquitting two boys who were convicted for stalking a minor girl by following her.
“It is to be noted that in order to attract the offence of stalking, the prosecution must prove that the accused repeatedly or constantly followed, watched or contacted a child either directly or through electronic, digital media. In view of this mandatory requirement of the offence of stalking, a solitary instance of following the victim would not be sufficient to make out this offence,” said Justice Sanap in the judgment.
The court was hearing appeals filed by two boys who were convicted for stalking and subsequently sexually assaulting a minor girl. The judge also noted that the victim didn’t attribute any specific role to the second accused who only accompanied the first accused as he followed the victim when she went to fetch water from a well.
The judge noted further that the second accused also accompanied the first accused, in January 2020, when the latter visited the house of the girl and forced himself upon her by gagging her mouth and pressing her breast.
The court observed that during the incident the second accused was “only standing outside the victim’s house” and thus could not be convicted for either sexual assault or stalking.
The court upheld the conviction of the first accused for sexual assault while acquitting him for stalking.
