A middle-aged woman professor, who had arrived here to attend a literary festival, was molested while on her way to her rented apartment.

The incident happened on Friday night when the woman and two of her friends were returning at 11.45 p.m. after attending the literary festival.

The festival was organised by the 'Matrubhumi' group at Thiruvananthapuram in which several noted writers and thinkers participated and sessions concluded late into the night.

When she was returning from the festival venue, two bike-riding men without a headlight on their bikes assaulted the woman and shoved her into the ground in a dark area near the venue. The woman professor was little behind her two friends and when she cried for help the others arrived and the assailants escaped from the area.

The Kerala Police have not been able to identify or nab the culprits so far.

It is to be noted that a woman doctor was molested a couple of months ago, during early morning hours near the place where the woman professor was assaulted. The accused, was however, traced by the police in a few days' time and found that he was the driver to the private secretary of the Kerala Water Works minister.

There are more than seven cases of assault and molestation against women that had been reported in the past three months in Thiruvananthapuram, which is boasting of a 3,000-strong police force that includes the Director General of Police (DGP), ADGP, an array of IGs and several SPs in the state capital.

A woman college professor from the state capital while speaking to IANS said, "Its really frightening as to what is happening in the capital city. I am working at a government-aided college here and the woman professor who was assaulted the day before yesterday is my good friend and we had just parted from the venue of the literary festival. If the police do not immediately catch the culprits, we will be forced to sit at home during evening hours and early morning hours. The capital city seems to be becoming out of bounds for women."

Police, however, said that they were on the track and that the culprits would be soon arrested. A senior police officer told IANS that the police were acting fast and that the culprits would be soon booked.

(SJ/IANS)