Kerala man accused of throwing piece of cloth on woman’s face and assaulting her, arrested

A 30-year-old man has been arrested in Kerala’s Palakkad district for sexually assaulting women and is currently in remand. The Palakkad South police arrested Vishnu on November 13. According to the Malayalam news channel Asianet, Vishnu would stalk women who get down at bus stops and walk home in the evenings after work. He'd then stand in deserted paths to attack them from behind, by first throwing his mundu (lower-garment) over their face and then sexually assaulting them, so that no one would identify him. The report adds that since he was mimicking the use of his mundu for attacks the way Mollywood superstar Mohanlal did in the 1995 movie Spadikam, Vishnu is also known as Spadikam Vishnu. In the movie, Mohanlal uses the mundu only as a prop in fight scenes.

Vishnu is a native of Kodumbu in Palakkad, according to the police. “He was arrested based on a complaint filed by a woman,” an officer of the Palakkad south police station told TNM. “He has been charged with sections 341(wrongful restraint), 323(voluntarily causing hurt), 354A(1)(sexual harassment) and 509 (insult to modesty of women) of the Indian Penal Code.” Police also, however, added that, “We are looking if he committed similar crimes.”