The Supreme Court on Friday said threatening to publish naked videos of a woman—captured whilst changing or bathing—counts as criminal intimidation. The observation was made while upholding the conviction of a man under Part II of Section 506 of the IPC for threatening to upload a woman's private bathing video to Facebook.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N. Kotiswar Singh observed that threatening to publish on social media a video of a woman disrobing or bathing constitutes a threat to "impute unchastity" and is an offence of criminal intimidation under Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code.
"We are of the opinion that in the light of the changed perspective of women's sexuality, the act of video-recording the victim in a naked state whilst she was taking a bath and the threat to upload it on digital social media can be construed to be an act amounting to a threat to impute unchastity within the meaning of Part II of Section 506 IPC," the bench said.
The top court said the non-recovery of a mobile phone or the video material in question is not fatal to a conviction for criminal intimidation under Section 506.
According to the prosecution case, a complaint was lodged by the woman alleging that the accused had promised to marry her, following which they became sexually intimate. However, she soon realised that the man had no intention of marrying her. She reportedly alleged that the accused threatened to upload a video on social media of her taking a bath, which was allegedly recorded by him.
After the investigation was completed, the man was charged with committing offences of rape, sexual intercourse by deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage, and criminal intimidation with intent to impute unchastity to the victim.
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On conclusion of the trial, the man was acquitted of all other charges but was found guilty of the charge under Part II of Section 506 of the IPC, which refers to aggravated criminal intimidation.
Referring to the case details, the apex court said a person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy when disrobing in a bathroom, and any publication of such images violates the privacy and dignity of the individual and thus sullies her chastity.
"Therefore, there can be no doubt that such a video as is alleged to exist and the making of a threat to upload it on Facebook would reasonably be considered to impute unchastity to the prosecutrix by publication, as it would amount to transgressing her sexual autonomy, undermining her dignity, invading her cherished privacy, and insulting her sexual character, even though they may be in a relationship, for such a relationship would not confer any right to bring it into the public domain," the court said.
"The law does not mandate that the recovery of an article of crime is a sine qua non for the conviction of an offence, though the production of the same would strengthen the prosecution case. Non-recovery of the same will not be fatal to the prosecution case if there is other credible evidence to prove the existence of such an object of crime or material," the bench was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
