B'wood reacts to HC's 'skin to skin' verdict on sexual assault

Bollywood actors Taapsee Pannu and Riteish Deshmukh and others strongly reacted against the Bombay High Court's January 19 judgement that there must be 'skin to skin contact with sexual intent' for an act to be considered sexual assault.

"I tried for long, but I'm still left with no words to describe how I feel after reading this. I got it now. Happy National Girl Child Day 2021," tweeted Taapsee.

Shibani Dandekar, who referred to Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court, who passed the verdict, expressed her disbelief in her 'Instagram Story', "This is just all messed up. I'm fed up. Passed by a woman and I feel broken."

The verdict said that mere groping will not fall under the definition of sexual assault. Justice Ganediwala modified the order of a sessions' court, which had sentenced a 39-year-old man to three years of imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.

"Please tell me this is fake news!" wrote Ritesh.

Television personality Raghu Ram wrote, "The day of this ruling should be celebrated annually as 'Eve-Teasers' Day'."