Kerala: Court staff held for sexual assault

Kochi: The Aluva Police on Tuesday booked a bench clerk of a local court for alleged sexual assault against a temporary lady staff inside the court complex on multiple occasions. The cops have taken Kalady native Martin, a bench clerk with the Aluva Judicial First Class Magistrate court, into custody based on a complaint filed by the 31-year-old victim, a resident of Palarivattom, on Monday.

According to the complaint, the accused sexually assaulted the victim inside the court on four occasions during the last week of April and first week of May. The woman, temporarily appointed as a sweeper, used to come for duty early in the morning and the accused subjected her to the alleged sexual assault then, the police said.

According to cops, the woman underwent treatment for close to a month to recover from trauma post the incident. The cops hinted that the arrest of the accused might be effected late on Tuesday. The Magistrate at the court has sought a report from the police in the case. The complaint was initially given to Aluva sub-inspector Honey K Das who forwarded it to Aluva circle inspector T B Vijayan.