BJP leader sexually assaults minor sleeping in train, victim wakes up and shouts

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor girl in the Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai express.

The accused has been identified as KP Prem Ananth, an advocate.

He was a BJP candidate from RK Nagar constituency, in Chennai, during 2006 assembly election.

Following the complaint of the child, Erode Railway Police arrested the accused under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on Sunday and later remanded in judicial custody.

The accused allegedly assaulted the minor girl when she was asleep. The victim woke up and shouted, following which her family nabbed him. 

Recently, rape cases in BJP ruled states have been in the media for all the wrong reasons. BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his brother Atul are accused in rape and murder case in Uttar Pradesh. Amid the nationwide outrage triggered by Unnao rape case, and the gruesome rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, the Union Cabinet approved an ordinance on Saturday, proposing the death penalty to those convicted of raping children below 12 years of age.

President Ramnath Kovind on Sunday promulgated the ordinance to strengthen the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. In the wake of an increase in incidents of rape of minors, the Union Cabinet on Saturday approved a number of measures to amend the POCSO Act.

(With ANI inputs)