Bombay High Court directs men accused of molestation to sweep roads
Four young men were accused of molestation and attempted murder.
Mumbai: In an unusual order, the Bombay high court on Thursday directed four youths from Thane district to sweep public streets of their area once a week for the next six months to get a case of molestation and attempt to murder quashed against them.
The youths — Ankit Jadhav, Suhas Thakur, Milind More and Amit Adkhale — had approached the Bombay high court seeking to quash a case of molestation and attempt to murder registered against them at the Naupada police station last October.
When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, they informed the division bench of justice R.V. More and justice V.L. Achiliya that they are seeking quashing of FIR as they have reached an amicable settlement with the complainants. They also voluntarily informed the court that to show their bonafied they are ready to do community service and when the court asked them what kind of community service they would do they replied that they are ready to clean their area for three months.
On this, the bench asked them to do the community service of sweeping streets of their area for eight hours every Sunday for the next six months. The judges then quashed and set aside the FIR against them “subject to” them sweeping the streets for the next six months.
The judges have also directed the police to depute a policeman to monitor if these youths are doing the community service or not and file a report every month.
According to advocate Sumedh Deshpande, who was appearing on behalf of complainants, the judges have inherent powers under section 482 of CrPC to quash FIR as well as issue directions to the accused to do community services.
The judges later personally cross-checked with complainants if they have come to an amicable settlement.
According to the police, during a Dussehra procession in Thane in October the applicants, who were allegedly drunk, misbehaved with some women and assaulted a man who objected to it. An FIR was subsequently lodged against them for attempt to murder and molestation.