Outrage and a political dispute between the opposition and the government DMK erupted in Tamil Nadu after a four-month pregnant lady was reportedly sexually assaulted and shoved off a train. Police have taken one person into custody about the incident. Two guys sexually assaulted the woman in the early hours of 7th February near Jolarpettai in the Tirupattur district when she was travelling to Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh.
The two males sidestepped the woman as she was heading to the train restroom and shoved her from the train near KV Kuppam in the Vellore district while she cried out for assistance. The woman, who works for a clothing company in Coimbatore, was injured. She was wounded on her head and had fractures to her hand and leg. For treatment, she was brought to Vellore’s District Government Hospital.
While the Railway Police have begun looking through CCTV material to find the offenders, the Jolarpettai police have filed a case. A man named Hemraj was also taken into custody by the police to be questioned about the case. “The news that a pregnant woman was sexually assaulted by two men and then pushed off a train when she tried to scream is shocking. It is the height of shame that women in Tamil Nadu cannot walk safely on the road; cannot go to school, colleges, or workplaces; and now cannot even travel by train,” voiced AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswamy hitting out at the ruling DMK.
He called for tough legal action to be taken against the offenders, declaring that the “continuation of such atrocities” demonstrated the state government’s inability to safeguard women.
