The incident happened on an overnight express train (Representational)

A complaint has been lodged against a senior Railway Protection Force officer today for allegedly sexually assaulting a railway official's wife on a train in Madhya Pradesh. The accused has denied any wrongdoing. The incident happened on an overnight express train when it was travelling between Narsinghpur and Jabalpur.

The accused officer, RPF Deputy Inspector-General Vijay Khatarkar is currently posted with West Central Railway headquartered in Jabalpur as Chief Security Commissioner.

The alleged incident happened in the early hours on Monday morning when the officer assaulted the woman sleeping on a lower berth, Superintendent of Police (GRP Jabalpur division) Sunil Kumar Jain told news agency PTI.

The complainant said she resisted the officer's advances and alerted co-passengers. The ticket-checker arrived soon after, police said.

The accused, speaking to the press, said that his hand had "accidentally touched the woman's hand while he was picking up a bottle". He also said he apologised to the woman however she refused to listen to him.

"She wanted to create an issue out of this so she did," Mr Khatarkar told reporters today.

A case for sexual harassment under section 354(a) of the IPC has been registered against the accused, police said.

with inputs from PTI