1-yr RI for peck on the cheek in local train

Observing that the kind of act committed by the accused was nothing but an attack on the victim’s dignity, a magistrate court on Wednesday sentenced a 37-year-old resident of Goa found guilty of kissing a woman on her cheek in a local train in 2015, to a year of rigorous imprisonment.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the man, of which it directed that Rs 5,000 be given to the victim as compensation. The man had claimed in his defence that the commuter behind him had pushed him and he had fallen on her, his lips touching her cheek. He said she had filed the complaint out of misunderstanding.

Metropolitan Magistrate VP Kedar refused to accept this defence. It noted that the FIR stated that after boarding the train, he was staring at her. “It is said that women are far more perceptive than men, and this has given rise to what is commonly referred to as woman’s intuition,” the magistrate stated in the order, adding that women have an innate ability to pick up and decipher non-verbal signals, as well as have an accurate eye for detail.

The victim had testified in court during the trial and narrated that on August 28, 2015, she had gone to Govandi to meet her friend. From there, the two travelled in the general compartment of a local train from Govandi to CSMT, around 1.20pm. At Masjid station, a man entered the train and sat opposite them. She noticed that he was staring at her, but she ignored him.

When the train was about to reach CSMT, they got up to alight as did the man sitting opposite them. She said that he suddenly kissed her on her right cheek. She raised an alarm and fellow commuters beat up the man, before he was taken to the CSMT railway police station.

Relying on her testimony in the judgment, the court said that she was the best witness and the victim of the untoward incident. “Her perception revealed from her testimony clearly points out that the accused had committed the act intentionally. A woman knows a man’s intention when he touches her or looks at her,” it stated.

The magistrate added, “A woman may know less, but she understands more. It is a natural gift. A touch or a look a man may not understand, but a woman knows the intention behind these.” It observed that it was only the victim who could talk about the real intention of the accused and that he would have never admitted to intentionally having touched her.