Autistic woman threatened and harassed; youth held

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A home-alone 29-year-old autistic woman was allegedly threatened and mentally harassed by a 24-year-old youth in her single-room thatched roof house at Barton Hill colony on Saturday night. The Museum police on Monday arrested Vineeth based on her mother’s complaint. He has been remanded in judicial custody. The accused has been charged under Section 452 (House trespassing after preparation for hurt), a non-bailable offence.

Her mother, who runs a small wayside eatery near the police station, locks-in the severely autistic woman when she goes to her stall. In her absence, Vineeth, a drug-addict, used to bang the door of the house and shout. However, on the incident night, he managed to break the lock and enter the house. This led the victim to scream following which her mother came to her rescue.  

There are allegations that the police initially tried to cover up the incident as they had some dispute with the victim’s mother. “When she approached the police, the police deliberately dragged the proceedings as they had a prior dispute with the complainant. But later, the police intervened and arrested him on Monday due to our pressure,” said Chalai Mohanan, KPMS district president and secretary of SC/ST protection forum. He also added that some police officers in the station did not have the basic courtesy and had tried to summon the complainant instead of going to her home to record statement.

Meanwhile, the Museum police denied that they had delayed the proceedings. “We did not delay the proceedings. In fact, we traced the culprit after recording the complainant’s statement. We found merit in her complaint and took the accused into custody,” said J Santhosh Kumar, Museum CI.