A doctor has been sentenced to a year in prison for attempting to record a video of a fellow student bathing when he himself was a medical student in 2014. The doctor, Vipul Chaudhari, was then living in the same hostel as the victim, who was a postgraduate student and resident doctor. No part of the woman’s body was captured in the video, though her clothes and bucket were seen.
The informant had said in her testimony that she had returned to the hostel after duty on Oct 2, 2014 and had gone to take a bath around 3pm. She noticed a mobile pointed towards her on the partition wall of the bathroom. When she didn’t get a response on asking who it was, she put on her clothes and went to the adjoining toilet. After knocking, she pushed the door and found a fellow student hiding inside. A police complaint was lodged.
In its order of Jan 18, Magistrate KC Mane stated while sentencing Chaudhari that his conduct to record the video of the prosecutrix is serious in nature. The doctor’s advocate told the court that his client has a postgraduate medical degree and is a reputed person, and be let off on a bond of good behaviour instead of being sentenced.
The court said it is not inclined to grant the benefit, but as he has faced trial for eight years and was a college-going student at the time, a sentence of lower limit will meet ends of justice.
The accused had been booked for voyeurism and under the Information Technology Act. This week, Chaudhari’s sentence was suspended and he was granted bail by a sessions court as he had challenged the magistrate’s judgment.
