TVF founder Arunabh Kumar cleared of sexual harassment charge
A magistrate court acquitted The Viral Fever's (TVF) founder and former CEO Arunabh Kumar in a sexual harassment case. The case was filed against him in 2017 at the Versova Police Station. It was filed against him under Section 354A (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after a woman accused him of sexually harassing her in 2014.
Why does this story matter?
Hearing the plea in September, the Andheri metropolitan magistrate said there was an "unreasonable and unexplained" delay in filing the FIR. The magistrate stated that all the witnesses were from the same industry as the accused and complainant, making them "interested witnesses." Meanwhile, the woman stated that she had filed the complaint three years later after seeing other women standing up against sexual harassment.
Here's what the court said while pronouncing the judgment
The court said on Wednesday, "There is no concrete evidence produced by the prosecution. There are material discrepancies and contradictions. Even there is unreasonable and unexplained delay in filing FIR, which raised the clouds on the case." "Even it can be said that the said complaint is filed out of grudge or rivalry on business between accused and informant," the court said.
Woman had accused Kumar of verbal and physical abuse
The alleged victim said in her complaint that the former TVF CEO approached her in 2014 when she was sitting at a playground near the office. She stated that he first verbally abused her and then touched her inappropriately. She claimed that she was shocked by the behavior and immediately left the place. She added that she ignored the whole incident after a while.
Defendant claimed that the case was filed to extract money
In March 2017, the woman claimed that she saw news articles about eight-nine women who filed harassment cases against him, after which she also raised her concern and filed the case. However, Kumar's lawyers claimed that she had filed the case to extract money from him. The court dismissed the case, saying that the woman failed to prove the incident beyond a reasonable doubt.
