Lawyer held for molesting minor girl on train

A 57-year-old lawyer, who was a BJP candidate in the 2006 Assembly elections, was arrested for sexually assaulting a minor girl on a moving train on Sunday morning.

Prem Ananth, who was the BJP's candidate in the R K Nagar constituency in Chennai, was arrested after the girl's mother lodged a complaint with the Railway Police in Erode after de-boarding the Tiruvananthapuram-Chennai Express.

The mother said that the young girl was molested by Ananth when she was sleeping on the middle berth.

The child screamed and alerted her parents following which he was handed over to the Railway Police.

The Chennai-based lawyer had boarded the train from Coimbatore on April 21 night and was booked under The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act), 2012. He is currently lodged in Coimbatore prison.

Though he was a BJP candidate in 2006, party leaders said he is not active in the outfit anymore.