.htpasswd permission problem

I have a site that needs to be protected with .htaccess file.

But I get permission denied error while accessing my site ignoring the correct login.

Apache version :

Server version: Apache/2.2.3

My .htaccess file :

[root@server conf]# cat /home/molly/www/.htaccess

AuthName "Directory Auth for User Molly"

AuthType Basic

AuthUserFile /home/molly/.htpasswd

require user molly

with below permission :

[root@server conf]# ls -al /home/molly/www/.htaccess

-rwxr-xr-x 1 molly apache 116 Jan 13 18:12 /home/molly/www/.htaccess

[root@server conf]#

Earlier the permissions were 644 to htaccess file, but I changed it to 755 after checking some solutions, but of no use

Similarly, permissions on .htpasswd file :

[root@server conf]# ls -al /home/molly/.htpasswd

-rwxr-xr-x 1 molly apache 46 Jan 13 18:58 /home/molly/.htpasswd

[root@server conf]#

Error log file :

[Wed Jan 14 11:59:29 2015] [error] [client 10.0.0.7] (13)Permission denied: > Could not open password file: /home/molly/.htpasswd

[Wed Jan 14 11:59:29 2015] [error] [client 10.0.0.7] access to /~molly failed, reason: verification of user id 'molly' not configured

Also I changed the user directory permission to 755 as such, but of no use.

[root@server conf]# ls -ld /home/molly/

drwxr-xr-x 4 molly molly 4096 Jan 13 18:23 /home/molly/

[root@server conf]#

I am unable to move forward because of this weird htpasswd problem.

Any Ideas

I hope many guys might have gone through this problem.