South Mumbai Man Acquitted Of Harassment Charges After 11 Years Of Litigation

A Mumbai magistrate's court this week acquitted a 35-year-old south Mumbai man who was accused of stalking, sending obscene messages, and threatening to leak private photographs of his former girlfriend. The acquittal ends 11 years of litigation for the man, after the court found that the complainant had filed the police case because the man ended their five-year relationship.

The prosecution had alleged that the man and the complainant had known each other since childhood, studied together, and were in a relationship. However, during the trial, the court determined that the allegations of harassment arose only after the relationship ended.

A key aspect of the prosecution's case was the claim that the man had obtained objectionable photographs of the woman without her knowledge and threatened to unlawfully transmit them. However, the woman admitted in her evidence that she had clicked the photographs herself and sent them to the man voluntarily during their relationship.

The magistrate noted that this admission showed the photographs were not obtained without the woman's knowledge. The court stated that the fact she sent them "clearly goes to show that, the accused did not obtain objectionable photos of the informant without her knowledge, but crystalises that, the informant had sent it, when she was in love-ship with the accused."

The magistrate further observed that the complainant admitted the two had dated for approximately five years and that the man had never misbehaved with her during that period. The court concluded that the breakdown of their five-year relationship was the actual trigger for the legal action.

"...the relationship between the informant and the accused which broke after five years of dating has led to this prosecution," the magistrate said in the ruling, clearing the man of all charges.