At a time when the BJP is trying hard to defend some of the derogatory statements made by its leaders like H. Raja and S.Ve. Shekher, an advocate, who had contested the 2006 polls on a BJP ticket, has been arrested by the railway police for molesting a nine-year-old girl in a train, on Saturday night. The accused, K.P. Prem Ananth, has been accused of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation in the past, and has now been booked under POCSO Act.
The child was travelling with her family from Thiruvananthapuram to Chennai, and was sleeping in the middle birth. The lawyer, who got into the train from Coimbatore in an inebriated condition, molested the child. According to the complaint filed by the child's mother, the lawyer first kissed the child on her cheeks and then touched her inappropriately. The girl screamed, calling her mother, who lodged a complaint with the railway police in Erode.
The police immediately arrested him, and a case under POCSO Act was registered. When the child’s family and the passengers in the train surrounded the accused and said they would hand over him to the police, he threatened them saying he belongs to the BJP, and no one can do anything to him. He also threatened the people around him, saying he is a member of the Madras Bar Association.
Ananth contested from Chennai's R.K. Nagar seat on a BJP ticket in 2006, against the then AIADMK candidate Vetrivel. According to sources in the police department, Ananth is a serial offender.
Ananth, who also runs a school in Chennai, has been previously accused of molesting a woman and physically attacking her and her husband in March 2015. He is also accused of locking the house of a person who won a case in city civil court in February this year.