Kochi, Aug 8: A Kerala court has sentenced a man to jail for harassing a lady police officer by calling her 300 times in a 48-hour period.
The Additional Judicial Magistrate court in Ernakulam sentenced Jose to three years of rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 10,000 for the offence of sexual harassment, as well as a sentence to one year of simple imprisonment for causing nuisance with a Rs 5,000 as fine.
The court ruled that both jail sentences will run concurrently.
Jose had made these calls from his personal mobile number to the official landline of a ‘Vanitha’ (all women) police station.
According to the lady police officer, Jose made these calls from July 10-11, 2019 and whoever picked up the phone had to hear his lewd remarks.
The officials at the station were forced to keep the phone receiver aside in an effort to put an end to the calls.
The court was also told that Jose had a history of creating such “nuisance” in many police stations.
A complaint was registered on July 11, 2019, which led to to Jose’s arrest.
“The act of the accused has not only caused discomfort, mental pain and dislike to the prosecutrix and other staff members of the police station but also adversely affected their public duty to attend the phone calls which might be an emergency and may contain informations and grievance from general public which require emergent action,” the court said in its order.
However, since there was no physical contact between the accused and the lady police officer, the judge acquitted him of the offence under Section 354A(1)(i) (physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures).
“The prosecution has no case that accused ever contacted physically with the prosecutrix and advances any unwelcome or explicit sexual overtures. In these circumstances, I am unable to conclude that offence u/s 354A(1)(i) IPC would stand against the accused. Hence, the accused is found not guilty u/s.354A(1)(i) IPC,” the court opined.
