Thane, May 26 (PTI) A POCSO court in Thane has acquitted a rickshaw driver accused of outraging the modesty of a 17-year-old Class XII student.
As per the FIR based on the complaint of the 17-year-old girl, Mohanlal Gupta (39) was touching his private parts through his unzipped pants when she was paying the fare after hailing his rickshaw on February 26, 2018.
He was booked under Indian Penal Code section 354 (outraging modesty) and section 12 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Special Judge under POCSO Act Ruby U Malvankar, in her order of May 9, acquitted Gupta.
"The victim admitted in her cross-examination that the auto rickshaw driver did not open his chain in her presence. She admitted that his chain was open. Thus, it appears that it was not that seeing the victim he started opening his pant's chain or did any other overt act to specifically draw her attention towards himself and his act in order to make it an offending act," the court order said.
It also said the victim has not stated the description of the auto rickshaw before the police or in the court during her testimony and, hence, on all these counts the identity of the accused also cannot be said to have been established beyond reasonable doubt.