Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): A 20-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly raping and assaulting an 85-year-old woman and abandoning her on the roadside in this district, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place under Venjaramoodu police station limit on Wednesday evening.

Agin, a lottery agent, was apprehended on Friday, they said.

According to police, the elderly woman was taken into a deserted building by the accused, raped, brutally beaten with a stick, causing injuries, and was later abandoned on the roadside.

Locals noticed the woman with severe head and facial injuries and rushed her to a nearby hospital, from where she was shifted to the government medical college later.

Though initially injuries suggested that she was brutally beaten up by someone, a detailed medical examination confirmed the rape.

Based on the statement of the woman and some local vendors in the area, the police identified the accused and nabbed him later.

"As per the statement of his family, he is suspected of having a mental disorder and the habit of committing such assaults following an accident. An investigation is on," a police officer said.

He was remanded to judicial custody by a local court and the woman was discharged from hospital, police added.

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Chennai (PTI): DMK President M K Stalin has alleged that the BJP's main agenda is to keep the minorities in fear, and everyone is aware of what is happening in the states governed by the saffron party.

Stalin further alleged that Muslims continued to be subjected to attacks.

"Now, a situation has arisen where even Christmas could not be celebrated peacefully. Christians are being targeted. The entire country is a witness to what is happening in Manipur. The BJP's plan of action is that a state of insecurity for minorities should spread like a wildfire across the country," he told PTI in an interview.

That was why it first enacted the CAA, and the next was an amendment to the Waqf law, and now it is "desperate" to amend the FCRA, he alleged, and lashed out at AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami.

"Palaniswami, who supports all these three amendments and has formed an alliance with the BJP, does not have any concern for the welfare of minorities. However, the DMK is always firm in its commitment to ensure that India must always be a secular state; that people belonging to all religions must be equally respected and that the Constitutional safeguards conferred on minorities must be upheld. If any of these is threatened, the DMK will be the first party to raise its voice against it," he said.

Denying that the BJP made the minorities feel insecure, BJP state vice president M Chakravarthy said the chief minister was making the allegation due to the "fear that the Christian and Dalit votes would go to Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam led by actor-politician Vijay."

He was depicting the BJP as a bogeyman in an attempt to create unnecessary apprehension among the minorities, the BJP leader told PTI.

On FCRA, Chakravarthy asked, "What's wrong with ensuring accountability in the use of funds?"