Assault on Dalit woman rocked Karnataka , led to widespread outrage

The high court held the villagers responsible for not assisting the victim and suggested imposing a tax on them as a form of accountability

The assault of a Dalit woman in Belagavi rocked the state in 2023. The incident took place on December 10, when the Legislative Session was still underway in the district. A 42-year-old woman from a Dalit community was stripped, beaten, paraded naked and tied to an electric pole for about four hours.

A fact-finding team of the BJP at the incident site in Belagavi where a tribal woman was assaulted and paraded naked. (Arun Kumar Rao)

What led to the heinous act

A 24-year-old man, the son of the victim from Hosa Vantamuri village in Belagavi taluk, 30 kms from the district headquarters of Belagavi, eloped with his 22-year-old girlfriend from the same locality the night before her wedding engagement.

This angered her family, who barged into the house of the boy, ransacked the house, dragged his mother, who was sleeping alone, out of the home, stripped her naked in public, beat her with a stick, took her to a nearby electric pole situated about a hundred metres from her house on the main road, and tied her to the pole with a rope.

The victim was tied to an electric pole around 12.30 am on Monday and remained in the same position until the police reached the spot and freed her around 4 am on the same day, according to villagers familiar with the matter.

Providing an account of the incident, the mother-in-law of the victim, who was sleeping in the next block of the same building, explained that a group of people including women armed with sickles, sticks, and stones barged into their house around 11:45 pm. They kicked the door open, dragged her out of the house, and behaved inhumanely with her. “It was shocking that about five women were also involved, who behaved like beasts with my daughter-in-law, and the men acted the same, which cannot be explained,” she said.

Reactions erupt after the incident

The villagers, who felt helpless while the woman suffered, provided the names of all the accused involved in the crime during investigation by the police. The police quickly rounded up all the accused.

“It was unfortunate that about five women from the girl’s side were also involved, who in front of us, stripped the 24-year-old’s mother naked and paraded her on the road,” said another villager.

“We regret and feel ashamed that such an incident occurred in our district, especially on the outskirts of Belagavi town, often described as the ‘second capital’ of the state,” said Belagavi district in-charge minister Satish Jarkiholi, to whose community the victim belonged.

Women and child development minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar, also from the same town representing Belagavi Rural constituency, expressed shock and distress over the incident.

“I could only imagine the insult, shame, agony, and helplessness of the woman who had to go through such an ordeal,” the minister said.

It was not just the politicians who failed the victim, but the media too, a police officer said.

Belagavi police commissioner SN Siddaramappa criticised certain media outlets for violating norms by showing the victim, her relatives, and other information that could identify the woman, bringing more trouble.

HC slammed bystanders

A “collective cowardice,” the state high court had said over the lack of intervention of the bystanders during the incident. The court held the villagers responsible for not assisting the victim and suggested imposing a tax on them as a form of accountability.

“Some collective responsibility measures have to be taken, which Lord William Bentinck took in history. It is not the action of offenders, but the inaction of those standing at the spot that is more dangerous. These people standing mute spectators will make the assailants a hero,” the HC said. The HC orally observed that Lord William Bentinck imposed collective fines on villages that harboured criminals. The HC noted that only one person in the village came to the rescue of the woman. The village has a population of 8,000 and during the incident there were “around 50 to 60 in addition to 13 assailants. And to the misfortune of the victim, only one person namely Jehangir showed the courage to assist the victim and made an attempt to save the victim from assailants.

The HC’s intervention prompted the government to announce compensation, including cash, land, a job for the victim, and police protection for the eloped couple. The court directed authorities not to allow outsiders to visit the victim at the hospital without official permission.

The incident sparked outrage and calls for justice, with the state grappling with the aftermath of this horrific act, which raised questions about the law and order situation in the area.