Taapsee Pannu, Riteish Deshmukh irked with Bombay HC ruling, groping without skin-to-skin not sexual assault
Bollywood actresses Taapsee Pannu, Shibani Dandekar express their outrage at the verdict passed by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, groping without skin-to-skin contact cannot be termed as sexual assault.
FollowActors Taapsee Pannu and Riteish Deshmukh, Swara Bhasker, Shibani Dandekar among others, have reacted to 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.
Yesterday, the Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench said that groping a minor’s breast without ‘skin to skin’ contact cannot be termed as sexual assault as defined under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
This ruling was pronounced by a single-judge bench of Justice Pushpa Ganediwala while modifying a sessions court's order, which had sentenced a man to three years of imprisonment for sexually assaulting a minor girl.
According to a report in NDTV, the report said that since the man groped the minor without removing her clothes, the offence can’t be termed as sexual assault, instead, it constitutes the offence of outraging a woman’s modesty under IPC section 354.
Responding to this news, many people and celebs expressed their anger and outrage over the verdict. Taapsee Pannu, Shibani Dandekar, Riteish Deshmukh, and others expressed their disbelief at the judgement.
Taapsee Pannu took to her Twitter, and sharing a screenshot of the news piece, she tweeted, “I tried for long but m still left with no words to describe how I feel after reading this.” It was National Girl Child Day yesterday, and Taapsee further wrote, “Got it now. Happy #NationalGirlChildDay2021.”
Meanwhile, Shibani Dandekar took to her Instagram stories, and while sharing a screenshot of the news article, she wrote, “This is just f*cked….I’m so fed up.”
"That’s an unreal assessment," wrote photographer Atul Kasbekar in a tweet. "Pls tell me this is Fake news !!!" Ritesh wrote. Television personality Raghu Ram wrote, "The day of this ruling should be celebrated annually as 'Eve-Teasers' Day'."
