TTE held for misbehaving with woman passenger in Maveli Express

Kochi: A Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) of the Thiruvananthapuram-bound Maveli Express was arrested here on Monday for allegedly misbehaving with a woman passenger.

Naushadh (39), a TTE with Thiruvananthapuram headquarters, was held by the Railway Protection Force here but was later released on bail.

According to cops, the victim, a 21-year-old woman was travelling from Kozhikode to Thiruvananthapuram alone.

“She had a waiting list ticket and approached the TTE with a request to allot a confirmed seat. As per her complaint, the TTE promised to allot her seat No. 23 in S-4 later and asked her to travel in his seat till then,” police said.

In her complaint, the victim alleged that after the train left the Shornur station, the “drunk” TTE allegedly came back to the seat and started misbehaving with her. “The ordeal went on for half an hour till 1 pm midnight. When I protested, he using sexually-explicit words and he asked me to get out of his seat,” she said in her complaint.

She changed the coach and Thrissur and filed a complaint with the Ernakulam RPF when the train reached Ernakulam.

“The TTE was arrested and was later released on bail. A case under section 119 (punishment for harassment of women in public places or indecent behaviour towards women) was lodged against him,” police said.

However, the TTE told the police that the woman’s complaint against him is out of vengeance after she told her that there was no confirmed seat for her.