Court acquits Ola cab driver in case of outraging modesty of female passenger

A sessions court here has acquitted one ola cabs The driver was charged with outraging the modesty of a woman, but his conviction for the offense of criminal intimidation was upheld with a lesser sentence in the affray case.

The case relates to a late-night brawl at the Mumbai International Airport in 2018, involving a driver, Yashwant Suranje, and a family returning from Hong Kong.

In January this year, a magistrate court had originally convicted Suranje of offenses under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 504 (intentional insult likely to provoke breach of peace).

He was then sentenced to six months’ rigorous imprisonment for insulting modesty, while for the other two charges he was sent to three months’ jail.

Suranje appealed the conviction, arguing that the contents of section 509 were not met.

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He said the sentence was overly harsh as he had already lost his business due to the legal battle.

The Additional Sessions Judge (Dindoshi court), in a judgment delivered on December 18, ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove a case of outrage of modesty.

The judge said that although there was an altercation, it did not meet the legal threshold of outraging modesty.

The court said, “It is clear that whatever words were used by the accused are not sufficient to infer that he intended to insult the dignity of women or the mother of the informant.”

The Sessions Judge, appreciating the evidence on record, upheld the conviction under sections 506 and 504 of the IPC.

However, he stressed that three months’ rigorous imprisonment was a “harsh punishment”, given that the dispute between the parties was “sudden and without any intention”.

The court found that “there was no intention on the part of the driver” to misbehave with the informant or his family, and reduced the punishment to the extent of the hearing of the court and alternatively imposed a fine of Rs 200 on the driver.

After returning from Hong Kong at 3 am on November 10, 2018, Sameer Hiru Sahni had booked an Ola Prime cab for himself and his parents.

According to the prosecution, the dispute started over the placing of three large luggage bags in the trunk of the vehicle at the parking level.

The situation worsened during the drive towards Bandra when the passengers requested to turn on the air conditioning, but the driver reacted aggressively, used abusive language towards his mother and eventually stopped the vehicle.

According to the complaint, he refused to proceed and threatened the family. Since it was late at night, Sahni sent her parents home in another cab. After this he called the police and lodged a complaint against the driver.