Thenhipalam police on June 20 arrested a reserve driver of Kallada bus on the charges of molesting a woman passenger hailing from Tamil Nadu.
Johnson Joseph, the suspect, was caught by a group of fellow passengers and handed over to the police for further investigation on the basis of the complaint filed by the woman.
The bus was on its way from Mangaluru to Thiruvanathapuram. The incident reportedly took place at Kakkanchery in Malappuram district around 1.30 a.m.
Following the woman’s cries for help, the fellow passengers intervened and called the police. Though there was allegedly some resistance from the bus crew to stop the vehicle, they were compelled by the passengers to do so.
Some of the passengers also smashed the wind shield of the bus during the ruckus.
Later, the police impounded the vehicle and the woman was allowed to resume her journey to Thiruvanathapuram by another bus.
Police said the woman was sexually harassed by the man while she was sleeping. The suspect was a native of Puthuppally in Kottayam district. He was charged under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code. He would be presented before the Parappanangadi judicial first class magistrate court.
In an earlier incident, a group of bus workers from the same bus company had been arrested by the police for attacking two students and another passenger at Vyttila for protesting against inordinate delay in arranging an alternative bus after a breakdown at Haripad in Alappuzha. It was the intervention of a fellow passenger who posted the details of the attack on his social media page that brought the incident to light.
