The Railway Police in the city on Saturday arrested a contract employee of the Indian Railways for sexually assaulting a 30-year-old woman traveller from the United Kingdom on Hampi Express between Hosapete and Bengaluru on Wednesday. The accused took advantage of her sickness, offered help, and sexually assaulted her, according to the police.
Shocked and exhausted by the ordeal, the victim managed to reach the hotel she had booked and informed her friend over the phone before approaching the police. Based on the complaint on Thursday, the city Railway Police swung into action and tracked down the accused, Basavaraj, 22, hailing from Bagalkot, who was in charge of bed rolling in the train. He was arrested on Saturday and booked under section 354A (whoever engages in unwelcome and explicit sexual behaviour, demands sexual favours) of the IPC. However, he was released on bail by the court. The Railways has suspended him.
The victim, in her complaint, said she is in India on a tourist visa and had visited Kerala and Tamil Nadu before visiting Hampi. She booked a return ticket on Hampi Express and boarded the train on Wednesday night.
Since the victim had an upset stomach, she could not climb the upper berth and requested a co-passenger for an exchange of berths. As per the complaint, the ordeal began exactly an hour after the train left Hosapete, as she developed severe stomach ache and couldn’t bear the pain. The victim said she asked for medical help from a person who was moving in the coach frequently and looked like a Railway employee wearing a kind of a tag of identity card on his neck.
The accused approached her on the pretext of helping her and reportedly took her to the sink near the toilet. The accused allegedly forced her to lie down on a vacant berth near the sink and closed the curtains. The victim said there were no passengers nearby and taking advantage of that, the accused started massaging her stomach and soon touched her private parts.
He allegedly came near her face and tried to kiss her and allegedly touched her inappropriately, which she resisted. “As I was seriously sick I could not push him back. Whenever I tried to escape from his clutches, he grabbed me to the bed again,” the victim said in her complaint.
The victim said she could not shout and could not alert the co-passengers thinking that he would do more harm as she was very weak. The accused allegedly continued to assault and sexually harass her from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., until she managed to go back to her seat and the accused left the place.
