HC sets aside conviction of man who assaulted minor girlfriend in public as prosecution failed to prove charges beyond reasonable doubt

Mumbai High Court sets aside the conviction of a man accused of publicly assaulting his 17-year-old minor girlfriend on the ground that the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.                                                                             The court said that the dignity of a woman has to be protected at any cost but cannot absolve the prosecution of the onus of proving its case beyond reasonable doubt.                                                          The court was hearing a case in which a man was sentenced to two years imprisonment by a trial court for assaulting his minor girlfriend at a bus stop in Mumbai.The accused was accused of violating the dignity of a woman.                            According to the prosecution, there was a love affair between the 22-year-old accused and the 17-year-old minor.But when the girl came to know that her boyfriend was in jail for a criminal case for 1 year, she stopped meeting him and wanted to end her relationship with him.On February 5, 2022, the accused insisted that he wanted to see her for the last time. The girl went to a bus stand in Mumbai to meet him for the last time.                      During the meeting, the accused took the girl's phone in his hand and started checking the phone.The convict accused the girl of cheating on him.As per the allegations, the victim girl was at Mahalaxmi station with another friend when the accused assaulted her.The accused slapped her in public and pulled the girl by her hair.After this, holding the girl's hand firmly, took her to the churchgate.Taking the girl to Churchgate and demanding to have a relationship with her, CCTV footage of the entire incident is also available in which the accused can be seen assaulting the victim.                                        Denying the allegations of the prosecution, the accused claimed that he had not assaulted the girl.The girl was threatening him if he breaks the relationship then he will have to face serious consequences.The accused said that he did not want to be in a relationship with the girl as he had seen her with another lover.                                                                   While hearing the case, a single judge bench of Justice Bharti Dangre observed that there were many discrepancies in the statements of the victim and her friend.Simultaneously, another prosecution witness who was a lemonade seller has accepted during cross-examination that he was at a distance from the place where the incident took place.When asked to identify the accused, he said that he could not recognize him either.Regarding the CCTV footage, the court said that its evidentiary value has been lost as the prosecution has not followed the procedure to be adopted for CCTV footage.                                                          Thus Justice Dangre's bench concluded that the prosecution had failed to establish the case beyond reasonable doubt and the accused cannot be denied the benefit of this failure of the prosecution.                                                                       Thereafter, the bench of Justice Dangre set aside the order of the lower court convicting the accused.