Pathanamthitta: The police has nabbed a person, suspected to have attacked a woman on board a train last week. Babukuttan, who fled after the attack, was taken into custody from his hideout in Ettichuvadu near Chittar in Pathanamthitta district on Tuesday.
The woman, 31-year-old Asha, was attacked and her ornaments robbed off while she was on board the Guruvayur-Punalur Express train on April 28. In her bid to escape the attack, Asha had jumped off the train and suffered critical injuries to her head, neck and spine.
Asha is the wife of Mulanthuruthy native Rahul. She is an employee of the Government Higher Secondary School at Chengannur. She was targetted on the train on Wednesday morning as she was proceeding to the workplace from Mulanthuruthy.
Babukuttan,who had been accused in cases earlier too, was traced with the help of the local people who found Asha lying injured beside the railway track. She has identified the assailant as the police showed his photo.
According to the Railway Police, the assailant, who was in another coach, had entered her coach just before the train resumed the journey. There was no one else in the coach during this time. After closing the door, he sat next to Asha, grabbed her phone and threw it out through the window.
Wielding a screwdriver, he threatened her and forcefully took away her gold chain and bangle. He then grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her towards the bathroom. Resisting the attack, the woman opened the door and remained dangling from the moving train while holding on to the door railing for some time. But the assailant forcefully freed her hold on the railing, and she fell off the train. All these happened in just 10 minutes, the Railway Police stated after taking Asha's statement.
The woman fell near the Olipuram bridge, which is between the Kanjiramattom and Piravom Road railway stations. The woman, who fell on the railway tracks, was spotted by the local people who informed her husband.
The police had issued a lookout notice for Babukuttan,who hails from Nooranadu in Alappuzha.