Court holds man guilty of sexually harassing woman in train

A man has been held guilty of sexually harassing a woman on board a train by a Delhi court which said incidents of violence are committed against women because of their gender. Metropolitan Magistrate Manu Vedwan relied on testimonies of the complainant woman and her husband and said they were firm throughout the case and their deposition cannot be discarded.

“Offences against women are basically those offences which are gender based meaning that the acts of violence are committed against women expressly because they are women.

“The United Nations Declaration on Elimination of Violence against Women states that violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women and that violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men,” the court said. The court is likely to pass later this week its order on sentence in the case. The court convicted Manoj Kumar Singh, a native of Aligarh, under Sections 354A (sexual harassment by way of unwelcome physical contact or making sexually-coloured remarks) and 509 of the IPC.