Court sends cop, friend to jail for molesting woman

A court here sentenced a Delhi traffic constable to two years of imprisonment for molesting a woman in 2010.

The cop was expected to enforce the law and not to flout it and hence deserved no leniency, the court said. District Judge H S Sharma sentenced constable Manoj and his friend Sudhir to imprisonment for two years and one year respectively and also imposed a fine of Rs 13,000 and Rs 2,000 on them.

"One can imagine the plight of such a helpless victim at the hands of a person who is none other than a police official," the court said. Manoj was accused of outraging the modesty of a woman, working with a private insurance company, after befriending her on pretext of getting his insurance done by her, police said.

The police said the victim met Manoj in April 2010 near India Gate and they had a conversation regarding  insurance work and exchanged their mobile numbers.  Manoj called the woman and insisted her to meet him regarding an insurance work. Manoj along with Sudhir came in a car in the evening to meet the woman and took her to a distant place and molested her, the police added.

Falsely implicated
During the trial, the accused said they were falsely implicated in the case as they had refused to take an insurance policy from the woman.

The court refused to show leniency towards the accused and said they should be given deterrent punishment.

"Deterrent punishment, at times in the circumstances of a particular case, acts as an eye opener for the potential offenders," the district judge said. The court said people trust police  as they are a disciplined force and adhere to the law. But in this case, Manoj had shattered the confidence of the victim, the court said.