A court in Maharashtra’s Thane district sentenced a chairman of a commercial premises to six months of rigorous imprisonment for sexually harassing a woman employee.
First class judicial magistrate P I Suryawanshi held Vilas Jayram Pawar, 52, chairman of the Eternity Commercial Premises CHS, guilty of offences punishable under section 354 (A) (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The copy of the order passed on February 24 was made available on Monday.
According to the prosecution, the woman had started working at the commercial premises in December, 2019 as an administrative staff. Initially, the accused treated her well and when he came to know that she had separated from her husband, he started mentally harassing her.
The accused would call the woman to his cabin and pass lewd remarks. When she tried to leave the cabin he would threaten to fire her.
The accused also touched the woman inappropriately and threatened to harm her family, following which she approached the police, it was stated.
The court observed that the offence was serious in nature and the accused occupied a position where he exerts pressure on his employee.
