Observing that it is not satisfied with the actions taken by the authorities after the incident of assault and stripping of a woman in Belagavi district came to light, the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday directed the State government to submit additional status report on whether proper counselling was provided to her, and why the remaining eight accused persons have not been arrested yet.
The court also wondered what had happened to the crime prevention apparatus of the police as the accused persons indulged in criminal activities, like damaging and ransacking the victim’s house, dragging her on to the streets, stripping her, assaulting her and attempting to strangulate her prior to tying her to an electricity pole, for about two-and-a-half-hours, from 1 a.m. to 3.30 a.m.
“The status report is falling too short to refer to certain areas at this stage. It many not be appropriate to indicate these areas in our orders at this stage as we have already indicated them to the AG. Least we can say that we are not satisfied by the way things took place post the incident,” the court said in its order.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Krishna S. Dixit made these observations during the hearing of a PIL petition, initiated suo moto by the court based on newspaper report on stripping of the victim in Vantamuri village after her son eloped with a girl from the same village.
“Why did it take more than two hours for the police to come to know about the incident when an issue like eloping spread like wildfire in small villages? The status report is silent on helping victim through counselling to overcome her trauma. Why are the remaining accused still at large?” the Bench asked after the Advocate-General Shashi Kiran Shetty said that police came to know about the incident only around 3.20 a.m. and eight persons, including four women, have been already arrested.
The Bench orally observed that the incident was “worse than what happened to Draupadi in Mahabharat as Lord Krishna had come to her rescue but in Belagavi incident no one came to the rescue of the victim in the modern world of Dhuryodhanas and Dhushyasanas”.
Shows male chauvinism
“I am sorry to say that the incident shows male chauvinism... It gives a danger signal that there is no fear of law. It is unfortunate that it happened in the progressive State of Karnataka. All our achievement as a country will fail due to such incidents... We are not worthy of calling ourselves human beings,” the Chief Justice observed.
The Bench also asked what the State Commission for Women and the State Human Rights Commission are doing about the incident. ”Did any of these commissions take cognisance of the incident? Such commissions sometimes act based on television debates,” the Bench noted.
