A teenage girl in Kerala describes how a railway ride with her father turned into a nightmare
A group of guys is
accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl who was riding with her
father on the Ernakulam-Guruvayur Special Express train.
The event occurred on
Saturday at 7:50 pm while the girl was making her way from Ernakulam to
Thrissur.
They had boarded the last
coach at the Ernakulam North Railway station, according to the victim's father,
and were traveling to their hometown of Thrissur. He told TNIE that there were
six men seated across from us in the sparsely populated section. The males, who
were intoxicated, began making filthy remarks about my daughter as soon as the
train departed from Ernakulam North Railway Station, according to the father.
My daughter's leg was
even touched by one of the men. She pointed this out to me, and I stepped in.
The men, all six of them, started verbally abusing me before they attacked me
physically, he claimed. They also manhandled a young man who was traveling in
the same compartment and tried to step in, he continued. "When we
attempted to take pictures of them, they became more hostile and attempted to
take our phones. However, we were able to take a few pictures," the father
stated.
The girl reported the
males to the Thrissur Railway Police, alleging that they tried to molest her
and touched her leg. "We have filed a complaint by CrPC Section 354 and
the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) against the five
of them,” said the police.
According to the
authorities, the girl claimed that the harassment started as soon as the train
passed through Kalamassery Railway Station. The males commute every day and
have season tickets, according to preliminary investigations, the police said.
The girl and her father
meanwhile claimed that despite their complaints about the occurrence to the
railway guard, he did not take the initiative to call the railway police. The
father claimed called Thrissur Railway police over the phone to ask for
assistance as the miscreants persisted in abusing the girl and the guard
allegedly refused to intervene. All six men, however, disembarked at various
stops and fled.
Since the train came from
Ernakulam, the matter will be transferred to the Ernakulam Railway Police,
according to the Thrissur Railway Police.