2016 assault case: Court convicts 3 of outraging modesty of woman bouncer

New Delhi: Three Delhi men were recently convicted of outraging the modesty of a woman bouncer at a West Delhi club in July 2016, noting that the victim's testimony was of sterling quality and in explicit detail. The court went on to add that the victim's mind was clearly borne with the "shock and horror of the brazen manner in which she was molested".

The prosecution had built the case that the three accused - Gautam Gambhir, Mohit and Nitin Nayyar had attacked a woman bouncer at the Hammer Club in Rajouri Garden's West Gate Mall, with swords, sticks and iron pipes following a brawl that had broken out between two groups earlier. During the assault, the prosecution said, the accused also outraged the bouncer's modesty.

Significantly, while the court did pull up the police for the way it had conducted the probe in the case, Principal and Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma added that "mere defective or lackadaisical investigation by the Investigating Officer cannot be a sole ground to throw away the entire prosecution case".

"The prime objective of the criminal justice delivery system is to accord justice to all the stakeholders — the accused, the complainant/victim, society as well as the prosecution," the order said, noting that the only flaw in the probe was that the IO had failed to interview the owner of the club and check whether the CCTV cameras were working.

The defence in the case argued that none of the public witnesses had identified the accused and that the "real offender" and the police had conducted a "defective investigation" — citing the missing CCTV footage.

However, the court noted that the victim, in her testimony before court and under cross-examination detailed the assault on her and had also said she could identify the men by name and appearance.

"It is highly probable that the shock and horror of the brazen manner in which she was molested and assaulted by the accused persons was heavily bearing on the mind of PW-1 (victim) but ultimately truth prevailed and her testimony is of 'sterling quality'," the court noted, before convicting the accused under the relevant IPC sections.