Belagavi Assault Victim Will Be Allotted Land, Accused Taken In Custody: Karnataka Govt Informs High Court

The Karnataka government today informed the High Court that the accused in the Belagavi woman assault case has been arrested and constant vigil by the local police station is being arranged to ensure safety of the victim.

State had filed a progress report giving details of further investigations carried out and the payment of compensation made to the victim who had reportedly been beaten, paraded naked, and tied to an electricity pole in Belagavi, last month. This incident occurred after her son allegedly eloped with a girl.

A division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit while hearing a suo-motu petition in its order recorded majority investigation is completed, including recording of statement and the authority is in the process of submitting a final report under Section 178 of CrPC. Further it noted that certain cash amount is disbursed to the victim and the State government has allotted a piece of land to the victim under the Karnataka Valmiki Scheduled Tribe Development scheme.

Court was informed that the victim has requested for allotment of an alternative land near her village and the same is being considered by the State positively.

Accordingly, the Court adjourned the matter for 3 weeks. "The state government to submit appropriate and necessary reports on or before the next date,” it ordered.

In the previous hearing the court had criticised the inaction of approximately 50 to 60 bystanders who failed to intervene and rescue a woman. The bench termed the act as 'collective cowardice' and went on to say that “We are of the opinion that unless certain solid steps are taken, to fix a collective responsibility so that it would also be in tune with the principle enacted in Article 15 of the constitution.”

It had then said “The time has come to fix such collective responsibility and in our opinion, these are the situations which we are sorry to say reflect a collective...or reflect that as members of society, we are only interested in acting towards securing only selfish motives.”

Case Title: HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA VS. STATE OF KARNATAKA AND OTHERS

Case No: Writ Petition No 27927/2023