Eight persons are under custody and eight more are being sought by the Karnataka police for allegedly attacking a 42-year-old Dalit woman in the Belagavi district.
On December 11, in Vantamuri hamlet, the woman was beaten, made to walk around in her undies, and chained to an electric pole because her son had run off with a girl who was engaged to someone else. Politics is heating up in tandem with the police investigation, as the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has formed a 5-person fact-finding committee in relation to the incident.
“It is unfortunate that it happened. One boy, about 24 years old, fell in love with another girl from the same village and same community. They had run away together and in retaliation, the girl’s parents destroyed the boy’s house and forcefully took away the mother of the boy, removed her clothes, and tied her up to an electric pole,” Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara told ANI.
“Immediately, our police went and rescued (the woman). She was brought to the hospital. We have registered a case and we have already arrested about seven people. Further investigation is going on. We are also trying to find where this boy and the girl have run away,” said Parameshwara.
The subject was also deliberated in the state’s Legislative Assembly, where the Home Minister reiterated the imposition of severe penalties on the defendants. “Police arrived on the scene right away after learning of the occurrence, saved the woman, and transported her to the hospital. Also, seven individuals had been detained in relation to the issue, and appropriate legal action was being taken against them,” G Parameshwara said in the Assembly.
