'He just winked': Man found guilty of outraging woman's modesty, gets no prison time

A court here has convicted a 22-year-old man for outraging the modesty of a woman by winking at her and holding her hand but refused to impose any sentence on him considering his age and the fact that he has no criminal antecedents.

Magistrate Aarti Kulkarni observed that while the offence committed by the accused, Mohammed Kaif Fakir, deserves a sentence not less than life imprisonment, considering his age and the fact that he has no criminal antecedents, he should be given the benefit of probation.

The order was passed on August 22.

The court said it couldn't ignore the mental agony and harassment the woman underwent, but imposing a sentence on the accused would affect his future and his image in society.

The court convicted Fakir under section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The court ordered that Fakir be released after furnishing a bond of Rs 15,000 and directed him to appear before the probation officer as and when called.

As per the complaint lodged at Byculla police station in south Mumbai in April 2022, the woman had ordered groceries from a local shop, and the accused, who worked at the establishment, came to her house to deliver the same.

The accused asked the woman for a glass of water, and when she was handing it over, he allegedly touched her hand inappropriately and winked at her.

He touched her hand the second time while handing over the bag of groceries and again winked at her, she alleged.

When the woman raised an alarm, the accused ran away. The woman then told her husband about the incident, and they lodged a police complaint.

The accused claimed that he had touched the woman's hand by mistake and had no intention to outrage her modesty.

The court held that although only the victim and the accused were present at the time of the incident, the evidence and the woman's statement were strong enough to prove the accused's complicity.