Cases on Stalking By- Nikita Verma

 Cases on Stalking

                                                                              By – Nikita Verma

In one of a leading case of stalking and rape titled PRIYA MATOO CASE where a young law student, was stalked by stalker Mr Santosh Singh, son of a former IPS officer, raped her and murdered her in her home at Vasant Kunj Delhi. Multiple complaints filed against the culprit in Vasant Kunj and RK Puram police station. Mattoo was alone at home on January 23, 1996, when she was raped by Santosh and then killed. Afterwards the case was transferred to CBI in 1996. The high court awarded him the death penalty which was later granted life imprisonment by Supreme Court in December 2010.

In 2012, the Supreme Court in its judgment of Inspector General of Police v. S. Samuthiram (1999) set out eight guidelines to curb eve teasing. The Court discussed the importance of taking up grievances of victim and bystander for eve teasing in public places such as public transportation, educational institutions, cinema theaters, etc.

In 2016, the Bombay High Court in Shri Deu Baju Bodake v The State of Maharashtra looked into a case of suicide by a woman who claimed that the reason for her suicide was the constant harassment and stalking done by the accused. The accused would always stalk her during work and insist upon getting married to her. The High Court held that the charges under Section 354D ought to have been recorded in addition to the charge for abetment to suicide.

Kalandi Charan Lenka v State of Orissa (2017) The informant is a student studying at the Women's College Pattamundai in Pattamundai. Among other items, it is alleged that her father has three daughters and that his first daughter is a mentally retarded girl and that the second daughter is the informant. The victim girl came in her mobile alleging her character while researching unknown obscene messages at School. Before this also from unknown mobile number, pornographic messages influencing the informant's character also came across her father's cell phone. Her father after passing the message became sorry and told the informant-victim about the matter. Thus the victim's wife became mentally disturbed to see these disgusting texts. The written letters containing obscene languages imputing the victim girl's character then came to her father during the year 2015-2016. Those letters came with sexual comment and a template that denigrated the victim girl's character. The messages not only influenced the victim girl's character but also linked the other male members to the victim girl for having sex. The Cyber Cell of the Crime Branch had investigated the same issue, and the High Court held that the accused was prima facie liable for sexual harassment offenses under Section 354A, 354D for cyber stalking under the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

In 2016, a 15-year-old was allegedly raped and burned on the terrace of her house by her 20-year-old stalker in Gautam Buddh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, just outside New Delhi. The class 10 student had dropped out of school a year before the incident because she could not deal with the harassment, her family said.

Varnika Kundu, the 29-year-old DJ who was chased on the streets of Chandigarh and nearly kidnapped, allegedly by Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala's son Vikas Barala, has found widespread support across the country in her fight for justice.

In a separate case last October, two boys in Bengaluru along with their friends kidnapped a 15- year-old and clicked her nude pictures. The girl committed suicide. Her suicide note read: “I have decided to die as I have lost my honour. I and my family need justice. When you people do not believe me, what is the use of living?”

 A city court sent Yogesh Prabhu, 36, an executive in a private company, to jail for three months for stalking and sending obscene images to his colleague who had earlier rejected his proposal. The police seized evidence such as IP addresses, laptops and statements from the server used by Prabhu to send the emails.

In January 2020, a 19-year-old was killed by her stalker at her home in Karakonam in Kerala, 30 km from the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram. The same day, a 17-year-old was repeatedly stabbed on her way home from work in Kakkanad, in Eastern Kochi, by a man whose advances she had spurned, reported The News Minute.

There are such cases every day, but for some reason or the other, they are not reported, like when the I was in class 10, a boy followed me, but I have not told about it to anyone. Just because I thought it is normal, but it is not.