A sessions court here has refused to set aside the three-month jail term awarded to two persons for molesting a woman, while observing that absence of an independent witness in the case "is not sufficient to negate the victim's testimony".
"It is common knowledge that people are ordinarily reluctant to become witnesses in such cases for fear of harassment due to their pressing engagement, for fear of harassment or for fear of going to courts time and again for evidence.
"Even otherwise it is well settled that the evidence has to be weighed and not to be counted," Additional Sessions Judge Ashutosh Kumar said, while dismissing the appeal of the convicts against a magisterial court's order on their conviction and sentence.
The convicts, Ajay and Arun Dubey, residents of west Delhi, were sentenced by a trial court for the offences under sections 354 (molestation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 509(word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.
In their appeal, the duo had contended that there was no independent witness to support the prosecution case and that there were discrepancies in the victim's testimony with regard to time of the incident and seizure of her clothes.
They had contended the woman had falsely implicated them.
"..No plausible explanation has been given by appellants as to why the complainant would incriminate them in her testimony or as to what was the cause of injury suffered by her," the court said, while rejecting the contentions of the convicts.
The sessions court upheld the order of the magisterial court, saying "...There is no infirmity, illegality, proprietary or perversity in the judgement of conviction of the trial court and the same is upheld."
In January, a trial court had jailed Ajay and Arun to three month imprisonment for molesting a married woman by abusing her and tearing her clothes and had also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on each of them.
