Mumbai: A magistrate court in Girgaum convicted and sentenced a 27-year-old man to one month of simple imprisonment for exposing himself to a woman outside her apartment in south Mumbai in 2019.The conviction came despite the woman saying in her cross-examination in 2025 that she didn’t want to pursue the matter and had no complaint against the man. However, magistrate Ravindra D Gawai noted that her evidence was recorded six years after the crime and that the man’s father had apologised. “For all these reasons, the [woman] might not have been interested in proceeding with the case. However, her evidence supports the FIR and merely because she does not want to proceed with the case does not give immunity to the accused...” the magistrate said.The court held the accused, Sajankumar Walmik, guilty of insulting the woman’s modesty, but acquitted him of stalking after finding that the prosecution did not prove he had followed her. He was also fined Rs 10,000. While sentencing Walmik, the court noted the seriousness of the offence but also considered that he was a first-time offender, had clean antecedents, was 20 at the time of the crime, and that years had since passed. He had been out on bail.According to the prosecution, the woman returned from her morning walk around 8.45am on Oct 22, 2019, and took the lift to the sixth floor of her building. As she rang her doorbell, Walmik stood in the passage and exposed himself to her. Frightened, the woman ran towards the lift. The prosecution said Walmik came before her, said “sorry” and went down the stairs.The woman first went to the flat of the housing society’s secretary and confided in his wife. Later, after a doctor’s appointment, she went to Malabar Hill police with society members and lodged a complaint. Walmik, whose father worked as a sweeper in the building, was identified at the police station.Walmik claimed that he was falsely implicated. His lawyer said there was a delay in lodging the FIR and that the complaint appeared to be an afterthought. The court rejected these, noting that there was no material to suggest prior enmity or any reason for the woman to falsely implicate Walmik. It said her conduct in immediately approaching the secretary’s house corroborated her version.The magistrate observed that the woman’s testimony inspired confidence and there was nothing in her cross-examination to doubt its truthfulness. However, the court said the evidence did not establish that Walmik had followed her to the sixth floor and, therefore, the stalking charge was not proved.
