Suranje appealed the conviction, arguing that the constituents of Section 509 of the IPC were not met
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The sessions court has acquitted an Ola cab driver of charges related to insulting a woman’s modesty, but upheld his conviction for criminal intimidation with a reduced sentence in an altercation case. The case stems from a 2018 late-night altercation at Mumbai International Airport involving the driver, Yashwant Suranje, and a family returning from Hong Kong.
In January this year, a magistrate court had originally convicted Suranje for offences committed under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It then sentenced him to six months of rigorous imprisonment for insulting the modesty, while he was sent to three months jail for the other two charges.
Suranje appealed the conviction, arguing that the constituents of Section 509 of the IPC were not met. He submitted that the punishment was overly harsh as he had already lost his business due to the legal battle. The additional sessions judge (Dindoshi court), in the verdict delivered on December 18, ruled that the prosecution has failed to prove its case for outraging modesty.
The judge noted that although an altercation did occur, it did not meet the legal threshold for outraging modesty. “It is clear that whatever words used by the accused are not sufficient to infer that he had intention to insult the modesty of the women or mother of the informant,” the court said. The sessions judge, appreciating the evidence on record, stressed that three months of rigorous imprisonment was “harsh punishment”.
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