Obscene act in front of woman in train: magistrate pulls up Railway cops

Tambaram railway police team was was pulled up by judicial magistrate S Sahana on Monday night when it produced a sexual harassment accused before her.

The suspect was accused of doing obscene sexual act in front of a lonely woman on a night journey in ladies compartment of EMU last week.

After the woman boldly videographed him and put it on social media, the railway police swung into action and arrested a 23-year-old man identified as Lakshmanan for the alleged obscene act in front of the woman inside the EMU near Meenambakkam.

The railway police had booked him only under one IPC section ( IPC 354A) for sexual harrasment - a cognizable offence, which is bailable .

That is when the Tambaram judicial magistrate gave the cops an earful about importance of booking the accused under TN prohibition of harassment of woman Act, so that he will not able to come out of jail on bail immediately, sources said. Then the railway police had to include the provisions of the act thus revising he FIR and submit it afresh again on Tuesday before the magistrate.

The train incident happened on February 9. The woman had boarded the EMU in Nungambakkam was seated alone in the ladies compartment. Around 11 pm Lakshmanan who boarded the ladies compartment found the woman was alone and he started the obscene sexual act in front of her.

The embarrassed victim recorded video on her mobile phone. Lakshmanan who noticed that the woman was recording covered his face and jumped off the train when it reached the Chromepet railway station. St Thomas Mount RPF and the Tambaram Railway police formed special teams and analysed the video of the sexual act and nabbed the culprit with the help of video footage. Railway police had registered a case and arrested the accused.