The Karnataka High Court on Monday refused to quash a criminal case filed against Mohammad Affan Ahmed, a former Bengaluru airport staff member accused of sexually harassing a South Korean woman under the guise of security check.
Justice M Nagaprasanna dismissed the plea filed by Ahmed to quash the case.
"In immigration, you take the lady who is South Korean, made to stand in T position and touched everywhere. Should you be spared? A woman of another nation, she has described what all you did," the judge remarked during today's hearing.
He also referred to allegations that the accused staffer had taken the Korean national to a gent's washroom to sexually harass her.
"First of all, why did you take her to gent’s toilet. Justification is, in ladies toilet somebody was there. You take her to the gent’s toilet, make her stand in T position and touch everywhere. What sort of an officer you are?" the judge said before dismissing the staffer's plea.
The incident is reported to have taken place in January this year at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, when a Korean businesswoman was going through immigration clearance before boarding an international flight.
According to reports, the accused staffer claimed that a beeping sound had come from the woman's checked-in luggage. He is alleged to have told the woman that she may miss her flight if she were to return to the regular screening counter. He then asked her to accompany him elsewhere for a manual security check.
He allegedly took her to a gent's washroom and touched her inappropriately. After she resisted, he allegedly hugged her and said "thank you" before walking away.
The woman immediately reported the incident to security personnel at the airport, who viewed CCTV footage that supported her complaint. They then took Affan into custody.
It also came to light that Affan held no authority to carry out security checks since he was employed by a ground handling and cargo service provider. Affan was sacked from his position with Air India SATS soon after the complaint was made.