BJP MLA did not outrage modesty of woman, says court
MUMBAI: A metropolitan court has acquitted BJP MLA Raj K Purohit, accused of outraging a woman’s modesty seven years ago, in the aftermath of her recording a pani-puri vendor relieving himself in his utensil. The woman, an MNS party worker, caught a vendor urinating in his pot in Thane in 2011, recorded the act and informed the police about it. A month later, she received a call from a news channel, informing her that Purohit had made a remark about the issue during a rally.
Testifying before the court, the woman said the journalist asked her to watch the news at night. “I found Purohit saying, ‘How can an Indian woman watch an ailing 70 to 80-year-old man urinate? Is this Indian culture?’ He also said, ‘Go to a redlight area and bring a woman from there; make her stand in front of a urinating man, even she won’t see it and this girl is watching,’” the woman submitted before a Mazgaon court.
When the police seized the CD of the news broadcast, they found it to be inadmissible in court because of several procedural lapses by the investigating officer — the voice in the news broadcast was not compared with Purohit’s actual voice and records of his speech, made both in text and audio by the special branch of Mumbai police, was not collected.
A policeman attached with the special branch, who was present at the rally, testified that Purohit did bring up the panipuri vendor incident but his statements did not provide any evidence of outraging modesty.
Advocate KP Sangoi, appearing for Purohit, argued the case was politically motivated. “There is also no evidence to show that Purohit actually uttered those words amounting to insult of modesty of the complainant,” Sangoi argued.
While other witnesses also did not support the prosecution’s case, delays by police in recording statements and filing an FIR, and lack of newspaper reports, worked against the prosecution, the court said.