“It
cannot be said that a child is not aware about good touch or bad touch,” said a
special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Mumbai while denying bail to a man accused of molesting a five-year-old girl. The accused’s
lawyer argued that the victim being a child used to visit his house and it
cannot be said that the applicant’s touch was a ‘bad touch’.

Special judge of the Mumbai based POCSO court, Bharati Kale, while rejecting the accused’s bail plea said the victim has clearly stated that the applicant touched her and “she felt it was a bad touch.”

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The court delivered the order on February 6 while a copy of it was made available on Tuesday.

The accused, who is a neighbor of the 5 year-old defendant, is accused of physically harassing and molesting the girl while she used to go to his place to play.

The man has been charged under Indian Penal Code Section 354 (molestation) and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and is being tried in a POCSO court.

The
judgement is being hailed as it follows  two widely criticized POCSO related offences,
which came under keen scrutiny and backlash after a Bombay high court judge
which said touching without skin contact is not sexual assault.

The contentious judgement were delivered by Justice Pushpa
Ganediwala in January. She had pronounced in the verdict that “skin to skin”
contact was necessary to deem a person’s action as sexual assault of a minor
under the POCSO Act.