Kerala: 35-year-old Japanese tourist raped at Kovalam, accused arrested

Thiruvananthapuram: A Japanese tourist was allegedly sexually assaulted by a handicraft shop owner in his rented room at Kovalam in the wee hours of Saturday. The police arrested the accused, Teja Lakshman, 24, hailing from Karnataka, who has been running a handicraft shop near the beach for the past several years. The woman tourist, aged 35, a nurse hailing from Kobe city in Japan, has been admitted to SAT hospital with severe bleeding.

As per the police, the victim was in India for a 12-day tour. She had visited Kovalam once before and was befriended by the suspect on Friday evening. The duo spent several hours at night on the beach and after consuming beer went to Teja’s room around 3 am on Saturday. When she told him that she was supposed to head to Kanyakumari in the morning, Teja made sexual advances towards her and she tried in vain to resist him.

During the assault, she started bleeding and managed to run away to the hotel where she stayed. The hotel staffers immediately alerted the police and took her to SAT hospital. “We arrested the man later in morning and booked him under IPC section 376 for rape,” said Kovalam SI G. Ajayakumar. He was produced before the chief judicial magistrate court which remanded him.