A minor girl, an LKG student of a school in Thiruvananthapuram, was allegedly molested by the school bus driver, who has been arrested.

Police said that the accused Sunil Dutt (54) was held following an anonymous call which gave information to the Circle Inspector. The girl had been subjected to sexual assault many times inside the bus when she was alone, police said. The locals, apparently enraged by the increasing cases of sexual abuse against minors, wanted the police to release the accused to rough him up. This caused tension near the police station for almost two hours.

The crowd pelted stones at two buses and blocked the road. Yuvamorcha also led a protest in front of the police station demanding public trial of the accused. The Times of India reports that the girl was taken to a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday after she complained of physical discomfort.

“The parents were informed by the doctors that the kid was subjected to molestation,” the police said. The accused has been charged under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). 

This case comes in the wake of a series of cases of sexual abuse of minors reported from Kerala. On March 7, a case of seven minor girls in an orphanage being abused by a number of men had emerged from Wayanad. At the same time, it was discovered that a 9-year-old girl who killed herself in Palakkad district in the same way as her elder sister had died, had been sexually abused. In another case that shocked Kerala, a Christian priest was arrested for allegedly raping and impregnating a minor.