PALANICHAMY Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the sole accused in C.C. No. 123 of 2009 on the file of the learned Judicial Magistrate-I, Thiruvallur. He stood charged for offences under Section 4 of The Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, and Section 354 of IPC. He denied the charges and therefore, he was put on trial. By judgement dated 11.12.2012, the trial court convicted him under both the charges and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of two years and to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/- for offence under Section 4 of The Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act. Even though the trial court found him guilty under Section 354 of IPC also, it had not chosen to inflict separate sentence thereunder. Challenging the conviction and sentence, the petitioner filed an appeal in Crl.A. No. 4 of 2013, before the learned I Additional Sessions Judge, Thiruvallur. The learned appellate judge, in turn, by judgement dated 30.03.2015, dismissed the appeal thereby confirming the judgement of conviction and sentence passed by the learned trial judge. Now, challenging the affirmation of conviction and the sentence by the appellate court, the petitioner is before this court with the present criminal revision.

(2.) The case of the prosecution in brief is as follows :- P.W.2 is the victim in this case. She was a minor at the time of the alleged occurrence and was studying IX Standard in a local school. P.W.1 is her mother and P.W.4 is her father. The accused was working in that school as a Physics Teacher. The school, in which, the victim was studying used to organize science exhibition every year. For the year 2007, the science exhibition was conducted in that school on 11.08.2006. The exhibition was conducted on the first floor and the physics laboratory was located at second floor of the school building.

(3.) It is the case of the prosecution that after the exhibition was over, the victim was asked to clean the garbage left in that the area. Therefore, she went to the physics lab in search of a broom stick where the accused alone was present. When she asked the accused as to where broom stick was kept, accused directed her to take it from loft and he asked her to use a stool which was kept nearby. She, accordingly, took out the broom stick by climbing on the stool. When she was standing on the stool, she had sensed that some body hugged her from her behind. She immediately jumped from the stool. When she turned her back, she saw the accused standing behind her and she requested him to leave her.