Noida: Man gets 4-year rigorous imprisonment for stalking 12-year-old in 2017

NOIDA: A 28-year-old man was sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment for stalking a 12-year-old girl in the city in 2017. The girl’s father had filed a complaint at Sector 20 police station on December 5, 2017, alleging her daughter (then in Class 8) was being stalked by a man for months.
“Rajesh Yadav (then 23), a resident of Naya Bas village, had been stalking my daughter for several months. When my daughter confronted him, Yadav threatened to kidnap her younger brother (then 3). We filed a complaint when my daughter told us about her ordeal,” he said, adding that her daughter was studying in a private school in New Ashok Nagar at the time.
A case was registered against the accused under sections of stalking, criminal intimidation and POCSO Act. Yadav was arrested the next day and produced in court which sent him to judicial custody. A chargesheet was filed against him on October 11, 2018.
Her mother said on December 5, 2017, when the girl was returning from school, Yadav intercepted her and forced her to ride pillion on his bike. “He also touched my daughter inappropriately. My daughter returned home and divulged her ordeal,” she said.
The girl told the court that when she used to get down from an auto or e-rickshaw, the accused would stop her. “He was on a motorcycle. He used to intercept me with his motorcycle and pulled me by hand. He had been doing this for five months. I was so disturbed that I changed my route to school,” she said.
Special public prosecutor Jay Prakash Bhati contended that the accused should be given strict punishment as he had stalked and threatened the girl.
Meanwhile, Yadav’s lawyer Raja Ram Sharma argued that the girl had not alleged physical contact in the initial complaint and hence sections of POCSO Act be removed. “The complainant has alleged stalking, but in the FIR he had not mentioned the spot, date and time of the incident. Hence, the stalking charge also does not stand,” he said.
The court relied on the statements of the girl and other witnesses and convicted him under Section 354 -D (stalking) of IPC and Section 8 of POCSO Act. “Yadav has been sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 15,000,” Chandra Mohan Srivastava, special judge (POCSO), said in the order. Yadav was, however, acquitted of criminal intimidation charge (IPC section 506).