In a shocking case of moral policing, an interfaith couple was attacked by a mob of six Muslim men in a hotel room in Karnataka’s Haveri district. They barged into a room in the hotel in Hanagal Taluk of Haveri District where a Hindu man and a Muslim woman were staying, abused and thrashed them, while video recording the attack. The video clip of the attack went viral prompting the police to take action against the assaulters. The attack took place on January 7. The woman later said that she was gang-raped by the attackers after they took her away from the hotel.
In the video recorded by the attackers, it can be seen that the six men knocked on the door of the hotel room and wait. When a man opens the door, they barge in start assaulting and abusing them. One of them charges towards the woman, who tries to cover her face with a burqa. The man slaps her so hard that she falls to the floor.
Continuing to mutter expletives, three of the attackers catch the man who tries to escape and thrash him. The woman in the meantime gets up and sits on the floor, when one assaulter corners her near the bed, while another one hits her and drags her to the floor. After that, the attackers dragged the couple out of the hotel room. The victims were pleading to let them go, but they didn’t listen.
In another video taken after the attack in the room, the woman is with the attackers outside the hotel. She tries to cover her face, but the men lift her hijab and film her.
Anshu Kumar, superintendent of police, Haveri, said that after the assault in the hotel, the attackers took the woman alone to a place and assaulted her and later dropped her on the road.
The couple filed a complaint at the Hanagal police station after the incident, and three out of the six men have been arrested. A staff member of the lodge also lodged a complaint in the matter. The arrested attackers are identified as Afatb Maqbool Ahmed Chandankatti (24), Samaiullah Lalanavar (23) and Mohammed Isaaq Mandakki (23). SP Anshu Kumar added that the search for the other accused is on.
Gang rape allegation
Later on Thursday, a video emerged where the woman claimed that she was gang-raped when she was taken away by the attackers from the hotel. She claimed that she was raped by seven men in a jungle before she was dumped near a bus stand.
The woman said that after attacking her in the hotel room, she was taken to a jungle and raped by seven men at different places before she was abandoned near a bus stop. She said that she was taken to the jungle on a bike, and she was raped at three different locations in the jungle by the attackers.
She added that after some time, three of the seven men took her in a car and threw her near a bus stop, asking her to take a bus to Sirsi.
Cops said that the rape charge was not made in the original complaint, and they are investigating this claim. Haveri SP Anshu Kumar said that the rape charge was not made earlier and the police learned about it later after the video of the woman emerged. He said, “We weren’t told about rape earlier. We came to know about this only through media report about the video by the woman. We have booked a case under the appropriate section, investigation is ongoing.”
Police said that the accused were not affiliated to any organisation, but were previously booked in a similar case.
As per police, the 26-year-old Muslim married woman from Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district was in a consensual relationship with a Hindu man from Shivamogga district, and they were assaulted soon after they checked into the hotel on 7 January. The accused saw the woman in a burqa entering the hotel with a Hindu man, followed them and barged into the room to assault them.
The accused men are booked under IPC sections 354 (b) (Assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly with common intention), 448 (house trespass), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty).
This is the second incident in a week in Karnataka. On 6th January, a Hindu boy and his Muslim cousin-sister were attacked by a Muslim mob assuming them be an interfaith couple. The incident took place in Belagavi, Karnataka, when the cousins were waiting in a park for a nearby govt office to reopen after lunch break. The attackers, armed with pipes and rods, beat the siblings mercilessly for hours, causing severe injuries.
Former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai questioned why CM Siddaramaiah was silent over the highly condemnable incident of moral policing.
Bommai tweeted, “The assault on a couple in a lodge in Hangal of Haveri district by some miscreants in the name of moral policing is highly condemnable. The police must arrest all those who were involved in the moral policing and punish for their act. After manhandling the girl, she had been taken to the secluded place and reportedly sexually assaulted her. This incident of the moral policing by the miscreants has given the feeling whether the state government existed or not?”
He then asked CM Siddaramaiah to clarify his stand on this issue. “Why Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who talks a lot about moral policing, is silent on this particular incident. Is it because the miscreants belonged to the Minority community? Mr @siddaramaiah, clarify your stand on this incident,” added Bommai.