They dragged Ashok's mother out of the property
An Indian woman was beaten and paraded naked by villagers in retaliation for her son eloping with his teenage lover.
The incident happened in the village of Vantamuri, Karnataka.
Things erupted on the night of December 10, 2023, when 24-year-old Ashok Gadkari eloped with an 18-year-old girl.
They disappeared a day before the girl’s engagement to a man of her parents’ choosing.
Both Ashok and his lover are from the same village.
After their disappearance, up to 15 members of the girl’s family angrily made their way over to Ashok’s house.
They forced their way into the house and ransacked it.
They dragged Ashok’s mother out of the property and violently beat her.
She was stripped and paraded around before being tied to an electricity pole outside her home.
One villager informed the police and officers arrived at the scene.
Police officers released the Indian woman from the pole and gave her some clothes to wear.
She was later taken to KLE Hospital in Belagavi.
A case has been registered and seven perpetrators have been arrested. An investigation is underway to locate and arrest a further eight individuals.
Lakshmi Hebbalkar, the Minister for Women and Child Welfare, visited the victim in hospital.
Relatives fell at the minister’s feet, calling for justice.
The victim’s husband, Lagamanna, works as a truck driver. He was away for work at the time of the attack.
Calling for justice, he said:
“The trial should be conducted in a fair manner, and the accused should get a life sentence.”
Lagamanna said he was not aware of his son’s relationship with the girl. He insisted that if he had known, his family would have tried to resolve the matter amicably.
Home Minister G Parameshwara directed the Belagavi Police Commissioner to take severe action against the attackers, calling the incident “inhumane”.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman criticised the Congress government in Karnataka, citing the incident as another instance of atrocities against lower-class citizens.
On X, she said there is no justice “for the SCs and STs. The recent incident in Belgavi, Karnataka falls in the same category as those repeated atrocities against the Dalits seen till recently in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. For Congress, the downtrodden are just a vote bank”.
Karnataka High Court criticised the state police and state government for failing to avoid the tragedy.
It also directed the state government to submit an additional status report on whether proper counselling was provided to the victim and the reason why other suspects have not yet been arrested.
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