Sadanand S Desmukh, hailing from Pune, was arrested and a case registered against him on the basis of a complaint by the injured passengers, police said.

The man, who seemed to be mentally unstable, boarded the Ernakulam-Kottayam passenger train at Ernakulam and began attacking the women, said eyewitnesses.

The man was soon overpowered and handed over to the station master and later arrested by police.

The two injured have been hospitalised, police said.

A year ago, Sowmya, a 22-year-old woman working in Kochi, was pushed out of a running train at Vallatholnagar in Thrissur district and raped by a man when she was travelling in the ladies compartment at night.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who is in New Delhi, condemned the incident. \

Chandy told reporters that special police would be deployed in trains in which lot of women travel.