Nagpur: On August 18, 2015 at around 7 am, when a 13-year-old minor girl and a resident of Kotwali area was going for her tuitions, the accused identified as Gulshan Umesh Toble aged 20 years and a resident of the same locality gave a mobile phone with many obscene videos and molested her.
On the basis of the complaint lodged by the victim, Police Sub Inspector Kumbhare of Kotwali Police Station registered a case under section 354 9 (A) (D) of Indian Penal Code and under Sub Section of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
Many girls and women undergo horrifying moments when some unscrupulous young men take their photographs or videos without their knowledge and attempt to blackmail them. For a young man in our typically male dominated society, it will make no difference if he features in any video depicting him nude or while indulging in any amorous activity. However, for a girl or a woman, every moment becomes a nightmare when she realizes that her obscene picture or video has been taken.
Recently when 22-year-old Prashmi Khanna was flying back from Canada to India by Lufthansa Airlines, and had a layover in Frankfurt Airport, while catching a nap there, her travel companions started telling her about a strange boy in a yellow shirt who was filming her. After multiple people told her the same thing, she finally informed her father, who immediately went up to the boy and confronted him. Her father found more than 30 unsolicited photos of Prashmi on the boys’ phone. Despite this, the boy, named Shikhar Tandon and hailing from Hyderabad, refused to take responsibility or accept what he did. Prashmi’s entire group made a scene, but there was nothing to do but wait till they reached India, as the German air hostesses were uncooperative, and simply made the boy delete all the photos. In fact, Prashmi told some media that the air hostess didn’t listen to their complaints at all, threatening them to stop making a scene or they would have to de-board the plane.
As Shikhar had deleted the photos, the Khannas had no proof to file a complaint with the police. Shikhar Tandon’s family was also present during this entire episode, but only intervened when threatened with police action. On reaching Mumbai, Shikhar was made to give a written apology and let off. Such little punishment for this openly perverse behaviour needs to be dissuaded, regardless of where it is happening.
