Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has upheld the court martial sentence of a former Lieutenant Colonel to five years’ imprisonment for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl, noting that the victim was well aware of the “bad touch.” The court noted that the girl demonstrated with immense clarity the specific manner in which the accused behaved with her once her father left the room.
A bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Neela Gokhale, on Monday, dismissed the appeal by the accused challenging the January 2024 order passed by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), which confirmed the five-year imprisonment imposed on him by the General Court Martial (GCM).
The Army GCM, in March 2021, held him guilty of committing aggravated sexual assault on a minor girl and sexual harassment under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and sentenced him to five years in prison.
In his plea, the former Army officer contended that he had no ill intention and that he touched the girl and asked for a kiss only out of “grandfatherly/fatherly” love for the child. However, the judges refused to accept this defense, noting that the girl’s instinct in identifying a bad touch must be believed.
They added that the accused met her for the very first time and had no reason to hold her hand, even under the pretext of reading her palm, touch her thigh, and request a kiss. “The girl immediately sensed a bad touch and reported it to her father instantly. In view of this deposition, we are unable to take issues and dissent with the findings of either the GCM or the AFT,” the court remarked.
It added that there was no violation of the accused’s fundamental rights and no infirmity in the orders of the GCM and AFT.
In February 2020, the accused touched the girl’s thigh, the daughter of an Army havildar (constable), and asked for a kiss. The havildar had brought his daughter and younger son to the accused’s room when he asked to meet them. The girl called her father and informed him about the incident, following which they lodged a complaint.
The girl consistently narrated the incident before the GCM and demonstrated with immense clarity the specific manner in which the accused behaved with her once her father left the room, the court observed while dismissing the appeal.
