Man booked for beating up woman inside city temple: B’luru police

Bengaluru police have registered a case against an official of the Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in the Amruthahalli locality for allegedly thrashing and dragging a woman outside the premises, a video of which has gone viral on social media, officials said on Friday

Bengaluru police have registered a case against an official of the Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in the Amruthahalli locality for allegedly thrashing and dragging a woman outside the premises, a video of which has gone viral on social media, officials said on Friday.

Following the incident, the victim, Hemavathi, lodged a complaint with Amruthahalli police station . (Getty Images)

In the viral video, a man is seen pulling the woman by her hair across the temple floor. As she resists, the man lunges for her dupatta and continues to push her out the temple door. Two men, including a priest, are seen witnessing the incident but offering no help. As the woman resists, the man starts to slap her and then reaches out for a rod to thrash her, according to the video. HT can verify the authenticity of the video.

Following the incident, the victim, Hemavathi, lodged a complaint with Amruthahalli police station stating that the said incident occurred on December 21 and the accused is Munikrishna, a ‘dharamdarshi’ of the temple in Amruthahalli locality, police said on Friday.

Anoop Shetty, the deputy commissioner of police (DCP), north-east, said the case was registered on Thursday.

“We have registered the case on charging of assault and outraging the modesty of a woman based on the complaint. The incident took place on December 21, but the complaint was lodged only Wednesday. We are probing the case. We are yet to arrest the accused in the case. The matter is being investigated,” he said.

The DCP said police did not register a case under the SC/ST act as the complaint didn’t identify the victim as a member of any scheduled case or tribe,

Meanwhile, Munikrishna told police that the woman claimed that Lord Venkateshwara was her husband and wanted to sit next to the idol in the sanctum sanctorum. When her demand was rejected, she spitted on the priest, after which she was asked to leave. As the woman did not listen, she was beaten and dragged out, he told the police.