Belagavi: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) has concluded its investigation into the incident of a 42-year-old woman being stripped, tied to a pole and assaulted in Hosa Vantamuri village in Belagavi district in December and will file the charge sheet within a week, said CID officials involved in the probe .
The assault on the woman had triggered outrage across the country and the government was pressured to speed up the investigation to ensure stringent punishment to all the accused. After the incident, the high court had taken serious cognisance of the matter and the Belagavi police were able to arrest most of the accused within a short time after the incident, which occurred during the winter session of the state legislature in Belagavi on December 11. Under pressure from different quarters, the state government had handed over the investigation to the CID.
The incident happened when a 22-year-old woman eloped with the victim’s 24-year-old son on the night of December 11, the day before her scheduled wedding engagement with another person in the same village.
Belagavi CID officials, who assisted the Bengaluru team, said the CID team, led by ADGP Ajaykumar Singh, completed its investigation earlier this week. “The investigation report, spanning over 1,500 pages, includes 40 material pieces of evidence, such as statements from eyewitnesses, the young woman who eloped, and the victim woman’s mother,” a CID official said, wishing not to be named. “The statements from the eloped woman and the victim’s mother would be crucial evidence.”
{{/usCountry}}Belagavi CID officials, who assisted the Bengaluru team, said the CID team, led by ADGP Ajaykumar Singh, completed its investigation earlier this week. “The investigation report, spanning over 1,500 pages, includes 40 material pieces of evidence, such as statements from eyewitnesses, the young woman who eloped, and the victim woman’s mother,” a CID official said, wishing not to be named. “The statements from the eloped woman and the victim’s mother would be crucial evidence.”
{{/usCountry}}The young woman, in her statement to the CID, complained against her father and uncle, who allegedly attacked with other relatives the man’s mother the next morning. She clarified that she eloped willingly and not under anyone’s pressure.
Belagavi Police Commissioner SN Siddaramappa had earlier said that the young woman, unwilling to marry another person, fled with the man she loved to avoid her engagement.
The CID officer quoted above said, “The CID’s charge sheet highlights that the elopement of the young woman, whose wedding was arranged with another man, as the prime motive behind the assault on the man’s mother. The attack was fuelled by provocative remarks from the relatives of the accused family, stating that the reputed family has not only lost its respect but also put us to shame with the elopement of its daughter.”
Following the order of the Karnataka high court , the CID also recorded statements from those who provided opinions and statements to the news media and social media, who have been listed as witnesses in the FIR.
Feeling insulted, angry individuals from the side of the woman who eloped attacked the man’s house. They women stripped the man’s 42-year-old mother and paraded her on the road in front of her house for about a hundred metres, and then assaulted her after tying her to an electric pole on December 11 night. The Kakati police rescued the woman the next mornring.
Based on the complaint, Kakati police arrested 12 people, including parents, brothers, and uncles of the woman who eloped. They were booked 13 sections of the Indian Penal Code, including attempted murder. The court remanded them to judicial custody.