Man held for ‘assault’ in ladies coach

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A native of Maharashtra, who forced his way into the ladies compartment of the Ernakulam-Kottayam passenger, allegedly tried to assault a girl student and pushed around some other students before trying to escape at Kuruppunthura station on Thursday morning.

Five students of Ettumanoor ITI were rushed to Muttachira Hospital, of which two fell unconscious during the incident, yet again involving an outside-state citizen intruding into the ladies compartment of a passenger train.

Sadananda Deshmukh (50) boarded the train from Ernakulam. After the train began its journey at 7.30 am, he was seen changing compartments. He kept mumbling.

When it halted at Kuruppunthara station, around 20 km off Kottayam, the man suddenly ran towards the ladies’ compartment on the front side and forced his way into it, pushing aside some ITI girl students standing at the door.

A commotion followed as the shabbily dressed man tried to push five girl students standing in the passage near the bathroom. He allegedly tried to sexually assault one of them by holding her shirt. At this time, the Venad Express sped fast but the girls managed to hold on.

Scared as they were, two of the girls fell unconscious and the others yelled for help as the train started moving.

A woman in the compartment pulled the chain, the train stopped, and the accused ran out of the compartment in a bid to escape. Hearing the commotion, passengers from near-by compartments and those at the station chased and nabbed the man.

"We have booked him under various sections that also include a bid to outrage the modesty of a girl student. He caught one of the girls by her uniform and also tried to snatch the bag of another. The man was produced before a local court which remanded him to police custody," police said.

‘I had taken care of 3 girls’

After the molestation bid on one of the girls and pushing four others, the accused Sadananda Deshmukh walked out coolly from the ladies coach and upon asked by a passenger from the near-by coach, he replied he had taken care of three girls, according to eyewitness Mary Iype, a professor with the BCM College for women, who was travelling in the compartment.

“The compartment was full…He had a fearful appearance and he tried to push the girls out of the train even as the Venad Express was speeding through the adjacent track. Four girls fell on the floor…By then the train had started moving.

Someone pulled the chain on hearing the girls yelling. He then coolly walked out. When some passengers from the compartment just behind asked him what was happening he told them he had ‘taken care of three girls’,” she said.

When asked whether the Maharashtrian appeared to be insane, she replied that his appearance was frightening but “we won’t believe he was insane…”

Like her co-passengers, she was upset that despite the commotion none of the cops had arrived for about 20 minutes. “No one took our statement..I still have the images of the shocked girls in my mind..There is absolutely no safety in the trains for women.”