The Kerala court sentenced a man to jail for sexually harassing a woman police officer by making 300 phone calls to the landline of an all-woman police station. The Additional Judicial Magistrate court sentenced the man to 3-year rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000.
The man identified as Jose received the quantum of punishment for the offence of sexual harassment. He was also sentenced to one-year simple imprisonment for creating a nuisance and was imposed a fine of Rs 5,000. The court said that the sentences will run concurrently.
Jose had made the call to these numbers from his personal phone to the official landline of a 'Vanitha' (all female) police station.
The lady police officer told IANS that Jose made the calls from July 10-11, 2019 and whoever picked up the phone was forced to hear his lewd remarks.
This forced them to keep the phone receiver aside in order to put an end to the call, she said.
It was also informed to Court that Jose had a history of creating such a "nuisance" at many other police stations.
However, a complaint was recorded against Jose on July 11, 2019. This led to the arrest of Jose.
In the order, the Court said: “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 information and grievance from the general public which require emergent action.”
As there was no physical contact between the accused and the female police officer, the judge acquitted him of the offense under Section 354A(1)(i) (unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures).