The Bombay High Court ruled that saying “I love you” doesn’t automatically mean sexual intent. It set aside a man’s molestation conviction for lack of evidence of sexual motive.
Mumbai: On June 30, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has acquitted a 35-year-old man who was earlier convicted for allegedly molesting a 17-year-old girl in Nagpur in 2015.
The High Court clarified that simply saying “I love you” to someone does not automatically mean there is sexual intent behind the statement.
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Justice Urmila Joshi-Phalke, while passing the order on Monday, observed that merely expressing love is not enough to prove that the accused had any sexual motive.
The High Court said,
“Words expressed ‘I love you’ would not by itself amount to sexual intent as contemplated by the legislature,”
The case dates back to 2015, when the accused allegedly stopped the teenage girl while she was on her way home from school, held her hand, asked her name, and said “I love you.”
The girl later informed her father about the incident, and a First Information Report (FIR) was registered. Following this, the man was tried in a sessions court in Nagpur.
In 2017, he was convicted under the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and was sentenced to three years in prison.
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However, on appeal, the Bombay High Court set aside the conviction, stating there was no clear indication or evidence that the accused had any sexual intent.
The court observed,
“There should be something more to suggest that the real intention behind saying ‘I love you’ was to drag the angle of sex,”
Justice Joshi-Phalke elaborated that a sexual act generally involves clear acts like touching inappropriately, forcible disrobing, indecent gestures, or comments that insult the modesty of a woman.
The court emphasized,
“Any sexual act includes inappropriate touching, forcible disrobing, indecent gestures or remarks made with an intent to insult the modesty of a woman.”
In this case, the court found that none of these criteria were met.
The High Court stated,
“In the present case, there is no evidence that reveals the accused had said ‘I love you’ with a sexual intent.”
The judgment further clarified the boundary between expressing personal feelings and criminal conduct.
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The court stated,
“If somebody says that he is in love with another person or expresses his feelings that in itself would not amount to an intent showing some sort of sexual intention,”
CASE TITLE:
Ravindra v. State of Maharashtra 2025:BHC-NAG:6106
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