Grabbing woman's hand 'without lustful intent' does not outrage her modesty, decrees Kerala court

livemint.com:

A Kerala court recently said that grabbing a woman's hand without any ‘lustful intent’ would not qualify as outraging her modesty. The accused - who had threatened to kill the woman - was instead found guilty of criminal intimidation and  “Mere assault or criminal force does not amount to an offence.

The culpable intention to outrage the modesty of the victim is to be proved. Mere holding PW1’s hand and threatened her that he would kill her will not attract offence under Section 354 of IPC," Bar and Bench quoted the judgment to add.

According to the relevant section of the Indian Penal Code, “assault of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty" is punishable with 1-5 years imprisonment and a fine.  The Judicial First Class Magistrate-II judge noted that there was nothing on record to indicate that the accused “uttered any indecent words or had any intention to use the victim to satisfy his lust". As such the court was unable to see any “culpable intention" to outrage the victim's modesty.  The verdict pertains to a 2013 case wherein the accused had caught a woman's hand and threatened to kill her.

A criminal case was filed against him under under Section 354 and 506(1) -criminal intimidation - of the IPC. The court ultimately pronounced the accused liable for conviction under the latter over his threats to kill the woman.