Bengaluru, 11 Sept

High Court directed the State's police force to track a woman who has filed nine separate complaints over the past decade, accusing various individuals of sexual harassment, criminal intimidation, and other offences, including under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Section 498A of IPC refers to—husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty.

Justice M Nagaprasanna, presiding over a single-judge bench, ruled that police stations must maintain a record of the woman's complaints and exercise caution when she attempts to file additional ones.

The court emphasised that before any new complaints are registered, a preliminary inquiry must be conducted to prevent the repeated filing of false cases.

The judge noted: "This is to stop the indiscriminate registration of crimes against innocent men. We have seen ten such cases, and this is to prevent the eleventh."

This marked the tenth complaint the woman had filed in the last ten years.

Senior Advocate Murthy D Naik, representing the petitioners, submitted evidence of the woman's previous complaints, which were verified by the prosecution.

The court reviewed all nine prior cases, noting that several men had been wrongfully accused, detained, and later acquitted due to a lack of evidence or cooperation from the complainant.

The court observed that the woman's actions seemed aimed at harassing the accused, describing her behavior as a "honey trap" targeting over ten men.

In the present case, the woman had accused her husband and his family, including a 75-year-old woman who had never met the complainant, of abuse.

The alleged incidents occurred between 28 August and 22 September, 2022. -PTI