A 58-year-old man, whom the police were after on the charge of sexually assaulting a minor girl, is in critical condition in a hospital after he allegedly shot himself in a suicide bid inside a forest near Pulpally on Wednesday.
The Pulpally police identified the accused as Soman, who runs a provision store at Amarakuni, near Pulpally. Soman allegedly molested a ten-year-old girl, who reached the store to purchase some provisions on Tuesday noon, the police said. The girl had been admitted to the District Hospital at Mananthavadi.
When the news spread on Wednesday morning, villagers vandalised his shop. Later, they blocked traffic on the Pulpally- Sulthan Bathery highway at Cheeyambam for hours demanding the arrest of the culprit.
When Soman learnt that the police were after him, he escaped to a nearby forest. The accused shot himself with a country-made gun when the police reached the forest, the police said.
The bullet pierced his jaws and he was rushed to the Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, in a critical state. — Staff Reporter
