HC upholds 5-year jail for Lt Colonel sacked over ‘bad touch’

MUMBAI: Bombay HC has upheld the sentence of a dismissed Lt Col to five years of imprisonment under Pocso Act for sexual assaulting and sexual harassing an 11-year-old girl. "The statement of the prosecutrix-minor girl inspires confidence... Her instinct of identifying a bad touch of the petitioner must be believed," said a bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale on Monday.
They dismissed the appeal by the former Army officer against a Jan 2024 order of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), Mumbai, which confirmed the minimum punishment of five-year jail imposed by General Court Martial (GCM) in March 2021. He was also sentenced to be cashiered from service. In Jan 2024, a single HC judge stayed the AFT order.
On Feb 1, 2020, a day after joining his posting in Pune, the Lt Col asked a havildar to bring his two children-a boy and a girl-to show them palmistry. He sent the havildar to bring a pen. The father left the room, followed by the son. After two minutes, the havildar returned and found his daughter crying.
The dismissed officer's petition said he had no ill intention and "he merely requested a kiss from the young girl out of fatherly or grandfatherly affection". HC agreed with Centre's advocate that a medical examination was not required as there was no physical injury to the survivorbut aggravated sexual assault due to inappropriate touch, accompanied by a request for a kiss. Although a medical examination ought to have been conducted to ascertain the mental status and trauma suffered by the victim, its failure "does not lend infirmity" to GCM's finding, it said.

"The most important evidence... which can be the last nail in the coffin of the petitioner to put it figuratively" is the minor's statement "clearly narrating the incident before GCM", it said. It said when the girl met the petitioner for the very first time, there was no reason for him to hold her hand, touch her inappropriately, and ask to kiss her.