As the song ‘Chandana Cholayil’ from the 1996 Malayalam film Sallapam plays in the background, a man wearing a navy blue shirt, white mundu, and a black mask sits aboard a private bus, rather comfortably flashing his genitals and masturbating. A video of this man — believed to have been shot at Cherupuzha near Payyannur in Kerala’s Kannur district on Sunday, May 28 — was shared on social media by a woman passenger in the bus, less than two weeks after another woman released a video of a man masturbating in a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus, leading to his arrest in Nedumbassery. Cherupuzha police have taken suo motu cognisance of the latest incident.
As per a note purportedly written by the woman who recorded the video, the incident took place around Sunday afternoon, when the driver and conductor of the private bus had left for lunch. The accused passenger was alone in the bus, which was parked at the Cherupuzha stand, when the woman who recorded the video boarded the vehicle. The man’s disposition and his attempts to grab her attention by calling her mole (daughter), asking her when the bus would start, immediately made her suspicious, because of which she took her phone out and began to subtly record him without turning around. He left the bus soon before the bus staff returned, probably after realising that he was being recorded, the note further says.
Payyannur Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) KE Premachandran told media persons that search for the accused man is underway, and that strong action will be taken against him. The woman who shared the video has been identified and her statement will be recorded, he said. The police said the investigation will primarily be based on CCTV visuals available of the bus stand area.