‘Spoiled India’s image’: Court gives man 2-year RI for molesting Peruvian | India News – Times of India

MUMBAI:

In one of speediest trials that took only eight hearings, a magistrate court in Mazgaon has convicted and sentenced a 19-year-old room service attendant to two years of rigorous imprisonment and fined him Rs 5,000 for outraging the modesty of Peruvian woman by touching her chest and neck on the night she checked into a Byculla guest house on her arrival in India on March 26. In its order last Thursday, the court observed that his act maligned the image of our country,
The woman deposed with the help of an interpreter as she only spoke in Spanish. She told the court that she had travelled alone around the world but this was a horrible experience.
A magistrate court in Mazgaon has sentenced a room service attendant to two years of RI for outraging the modesty of a Peruvian woman. She said no such incident occurred with her anywhere else and she was now afraid to travel in the country.
The magistrate said the accused, Riyaz Ahmed, cannot be shown leniency as offences proved against him are against a foreign national woman. “He came into the room only to touch her. Now she is afraid to travel in India. Thereby, this act of the accused has maligned the image of our country, if the accused is given benefit under Section 4 of the Probation of Offenders Act, a wrong message will be sent throughout the world,” Metropolitan Magistrate P I Mokashi said.
Under the Act, an accused can be let off on a bond of good behaviour instead of serving sentence.
The chargesheet in the case was submitted just two days after the incident following a probe by officers of the Byculla police station. The charges were framed against the accused on the same day and the trial commenced with the woman deposing. Public prosecutor Sonali Kamble examined three witnesses, including the woman, the investigating officer and the guest house manager.
The woman told the court she arrived in India on March 26 for tourism and stayed at Welcome Guest House that she found online. She had booked the guest house for one night.
The woman said that after a tour of the city and a subsequent live music show, she returned to the guest house at 11pm. She said after she changed into her night clothes, the accused came into the room and insisted she look for another room as there were insects in hers. At that moment, the accused touched the pocket of her T-shirt on the left side of her chest. She thought he was trying to remove insects from her clothes, therefore, she started to remove it herself. However, she found there were no insects on her T- shirt.
The woman said after the accused repeatedly suggested that she switch rooms, she accepted another one but it did not have a latch. She said the accused later entered the room and asked her whether she was married. Shocked, she said “yes, of course” and showed him her ring. He left the room and came back again with his phone and he asked her for a selfie with him. She said no to him. The woman said with the help of the translator app, she then told the accused not to disturb her and went to sleep.
She said around 4am, she found somebody touching her neck, but ignored it as she thought she was dreaming. Then for the second time, she felt the same touch. She woke up and she saw the accused. She screamed in fear. Thereafter, he left the room. She could not breathe, but with courage, put on her clothes and went to the reception, where she saw him and told him in her language “it was you”. Then she told him in English that she would call the police. She went to the next room to wake up her friend, who called the police.
The magistrate refuted the defence of the accused that he went to take his charger from her room and had patted her to wake her up.