A Delhi court has discharged a man in a molestation case lodged by a woman colleague, saying no sexual harassment was committed by him and the fact that he asked her to improve her performance does not mean he misused his position.
Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar dismissed the plea of the woman against a magisterial court and held that it was fully justified in discharging the accused.
"There is no allegation of physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures. There is nothing on record file that the respondent (accused) at any point of time sexually harassed the complainant.
"The mere fact that he told the complainant to improve her performance does not imply that he misused his position. Thus allegations levelled by complainant are baseless and are not sufficient enough to frame charge against the accused under section 354A (molestation) of IPC," the judge said.
The woman, in her complaint, had alleged that the accused, who was the manager of the store she was working in at Select City Walk Mall in Saket here, tried to get physical with her and forced her to work for extra hours to achieve the targets.
She had alleged that he harassed and tortured her for several months till she finally resigned from the job.
The trial court, however, discharged him in the case following which the woman approached the sessions court with a revision petition contending that the order was "unjustified and unreasonable".
The man had denied the allegations, claiming that a false complaint was lodged against him.
The sessions court, while passing the order in favour of the accused, said there was no material on record to show that he made any physical contact and advances involving any unwelcome and explicit sexual overture or that there was any demand or request for sexual favour or he had made any sexually coloured remarks.
