Saying ‘Aaja Aaja’ to Minor Girl is Sexual Harassment, Rules Mumbai Court, Convicts Man for Stalking

A Sessions Court in Mumbai has held a man guilty of stalking a minor girl and calling out “aaja aaja” to her while she was on her way to her tuition classes, eight years after the incident took place. The convict, however, will not serve any time in jail as the sentence is offset by the period he was behind bars before getting bail.

The case had been registered against the man after the victim’s mother filed a complaint. It said that in September 2015, while the victim was riding her bicycle to her tuition classes, the man cat-called her saying “aaja aaja”. It added that the man ran away after she called passersby for help but was found standing at the same spot the next day, watching the girl.

When the girl informed her parents, her mother approached the police and the man was booked under Section 354D of IPC and Section 12 of the POCSO Act. He pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations.

Judge AZ Khan, however, said the defence had failed to bring any fact or record to show why these witnesses are deposing against the accused, but the versions of these witnesses are cogent, convincing, and consistent.

The court also refused to take lenient view while noting that: “The accused is aged about 32 years and he has a wife and three-year-old daughter, but the same cannot be the mitigating circumstances as the offences committed by the accused are neither under duress nor on the provocation on the part of the minor victim girl but the accused committed such offences with the minor victim girl by which the accused is not entitled for the lenient view.”

Therefore, after taking into consideration the facts and circumstances of the case, the court convicted the man and observed: “Taking into consideration the facts and circumstances of the case, as discussed above, including the evidence on record, I am going to impose the following sentences to the accused as provided u/s 354-D of the Indian Penal Code along with 12 of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 which would certainly meet out the ends of justice from both the sides.”

The convict was in jail for a year till 2016 before he was granted bail, therefore the sentence awarded to him was offset by the time he spent behind bars.

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