ANIRUDHA PANDA Vs. UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is aggrieved by the order dated 4.11.2004, passed by the Deputy Inspector General, BSF rejecting his statutory petition against conviction by the Petty Security Force Court (PSFC) for the offence under Sec. 46 of the BSF Act, 1968 (in short 'the Act'), i.e., using criminal force on a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty that is punishable under Sec. 354 IPC.

(2.) By the impugned order dated 24.2.2004, the PSFC had concluded that the petitioner had used criminal force on the victim (hereinafter referred to as "A", to protect her identity), a girl eight years of age, with the intention of outraging her modesty and has thus committed an offence punishable under Sec. 354 IPC read with Sec. 45 of the Act. Resultantly, the petitioner was dismissed from the service and was inflicted a punishment of imprisonment for a period of nine months.

(3.) The incident in question relates back to the year 2002, when the petitioner was working on the post of a Constable and while posted at Shillong, Meghalaya, he had allegedly outraged the modesty of A, the daughter of his colleague, Head Constable Nurul Islam.