'Repeated following constitutes stalking'

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: Two senior employees of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) have been absolved of the allegations of ‘Stalking’ and ‘criminal intimidation’ after the High Court found that there was only one instance of them following the alleged victim.

The HC said that to constitute the offence of ‘Stalking’ there should have been repeated instances of following the victim.

It absolve them of the charge of ‘criminal intimidation’ as there was no ‘breach of public peace’ in their action. Nagaraj MC, 63 and Narasimhamurthy C, 59, approached the HC with a petition seeking to quash the charge sheet and case pending against them before a city court.

The two had been accused under Section 354D (Stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Their petition was heard by Justice Hemant Chandangoudar who gave his judgement recently.

A 56-year-old woman had complained against them alleging that on February 7, 2020 the two men had followed her home while she was returning from work.

They allegedly told her that since she was a widow and the following day was a holiday she should cooperate with them, ‘failing which she would face consequences.’

The HC in its judgement said that the allegation does not constitute an offence under Section 354(d).

“To constitute an offence under Section 354(d) of IPC, a man must have followed a woman and contacts or attempts to contact such woman to foster personal interaction repeatedly, despite a clear indication of disinterest of such person. In the instant case, there is no allegation that the accused herein followed the de facto complainant repeatedly to foster personal interaction, except for the stray incident that is alleged to have taken place on 7.2.2020,” the HC said.

The HC also set aside the allegation of criminal intimidation.

“To constitute the commission of offence under Section 506 of IPC, the intentional insult must be of such a degree so as to cause breach of public peace or commission of any other offence by the complainant.

In the instant case, criminal intimidation has not resulted in breach of public peace or commission of any other offence by the defacto complainant. Hence, the essential elements to constitute the aforesaid offences are conspicuously absent,” the HC said.

Therefore, allowing the petition, the HC quashed the case pending before the Magistrate court. Crlp 350/2023