Saying 'I love you' without sexual intent not harassment: Bombay HC acquits man in teen harassment case; overrules lower court verdict

NAGPUR: Saying “I love you” does not amount to sexual harassment unless accompanied by conduct suggesting sexual intent, Bombay high court’s Nagpur bench ruled Monday while overturning a 2017 conviction under the Pocso Act.

Justice Urmila JoshiPhalke acquitted a 25-yearold man from Katol in Nagpur district, nearly eight years after he was sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for harassing a 17year-old girl. He appealed the session court verdict in HC and was out on bail.

“If somebody says that he is in love with another person or expresses his feelings that in itself would not amount to an intent showing some sort of sexual intention” the judge said in her order. “Words expressed as ‘I love you’ would not by themselves amount to ‘sexual intent’ as contemplated by the legislature,” she added.

The case dated back to Oct 2015, when a class 11 student accused the man of stopping her and her cousin , grabbing her hand and saying: “I love you”. Based on her complaint, police charged him under sections 354A (sexual harassment) and 354D (stalking) of IPC, along with Section 8 of Pocso Act.

Two years later, the sessions court convicted him. His counsel Sonali Khobragade said his actions did not meet the legal threshold for sexual assault or stalking as there was no repeated contact or physical act indicating sexual intent.

Justice Joshi-Phalke agreed. “There should be something more that must suggest the real intention is to introduce the angle of sex…,” she said. “The offence under Pocso Act is not made out as there is no allegation that the accused touched the girl with sexual intent.”