MUMBAI: The Mumbai special court has ruled that calling a girl ‘item’ comes under under sexual harassment. The court made such a statement while considering a case in which a 16-year-old girl was offended by calling her ‘item’. Abrar Khan, a youth was convicted by court and was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison as per Section 154 of IPC.

The accused and his friends were constantly harassing the girl, a native of Saki Naka, Mumbai. The incident related to the case took place on July 14, 2015. While the 16-year-old girl was returning home after school, the accused pulled her hair and said “Kya item, kidhar jaa rahi ho?”. He also abused her by saying “Ae item, sun naa”. As per the complaint, when the girl responded, he abused her and misbehaved. Then the girl complained through the police helpline. Police registered an FIR in the incident, but Abrar Khan got anticipatory bail. He argued in the court during the trial stage of the case that he and the complainant were in a relationship and a fake case was fabricated against him.

However, based on the statement of the complainant, Judge SJ Ansari has ruled that the accused have outraged the modesty of the minor girl and sexually harassed her. He clarified that the offense cannot be avoided under the Probation of Offenders Act. The court said that such offenses need to be dealt with a heavy hand as a lesson needs to be meted out to such roadside Romeos in order to protect the woman from their uncalled for behaviour.