A district court in Chhattarpur rendered justice to a 30-year-old Japanese woman in a case related to her molestation, in a record time of only three weeks. The accused was found guilty and convicted for two years’ imprisonment.
The victim, a mechanical engineer by profession was molested by a dubious nature healer in Khajuraho.
Ram Ratan Soni (26), accused of molesting the woman at a tourist spot and later inside a hotel on May 7, was pronounced guilty of committing offences under Sections 354 and 454 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
After convicting him for outraging the woman's modesty and trespassing into her hotel room, magistrate SS Jamra sentenced Ram Ratan Soni to two years’ imprisonment.
The court also slapped a penalty of Rs 2,000 on Soni, failure to deposit which would lead to a three-month extension of his prison term.
The convict had befriended the tourist on the pretext of teaching her yoga and natural healing. He then arranged a room in a hotel for her and later molested her, the prosecution told the court.
According to sub-inspector Anjana Dubey, this is perhaps the shortest time taken by a court to pronounce judgment in a criminal case. "The incident was reported to us on May 7. The accused was arrested subsequently, and a chargesheet was filed on May 12. The judgment was pronounced in a fortnight on May 27," said Anjana Dubey.