Karnataka High Court Restricts Unauthorised Access Of Visitors To Belgavi Assault Victim To Secure Undisturbed Medical Treatment

The Karnataka High Court has prohibited any person, individual, group, association, political party, or the like, from visiting the residence of the victim lady who was allegedly beaten up, paraded naked, and tied to an electricity pole in Belgavi after her son had allegedly eloped with a girl.

The court has prohibited any unauthorized person from visiting the victim, except with the prior written permission of the medical officer in charge of the hospital or the doctor treating the victim.

A division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit passed the directions while hearing a suo-motu plea.

It followed after the Chief Justice had perchance seen a news clip on a TV channel “Times Now” labeled as “Belagavi incident victim is to be visited by the representatives of National Human Rights Commission as well as by the delegation of a political party."

The bench given the urgency, took up the matter in chambers and restricted the visitors in the best interest of the victim and to secure undisturbed medical treatment.

The court had orally expressed the need to counsel the victim of the unfortunate incident upon being informed that she was undergoing medical treatment.

This Court normally would not like to restrict the freedom of movement of any citizen; however, considering the fact that the victim has suffered unbearable trauma and she has been undergoing medical treatment, in our considered opinion, the flow of visitors is likely to affect the health condition of the victim and disturb the ongoing medical treatment as well, it said.

The court clarified that the order shall not prevent the family members of the victim, the official representatives of Statutory Authorities/Commissions, or the Investigating Agencies from visiting the victim in a need-based manner.

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