Are you silent as accused are minorities: Karnataka BJP to Siddaramaiah on Haveri gang-rape

Bengaluru: Launching a scathing attack on Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the BJP state unit on Thursday questioned his silence on alleged gang-rape of a Muslim woman by moral policing vigilantes of her community in Haveri district.

Former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said Siddaramaiah, who used to give long lectures on moral policing, is mum after the heinous act came to the fore.

"Is it because the accused persons belong to the minority community? You must make your stand clear," Bommai said.

Bommai said: "The attack and moral policing on a couple in a hotel at Hangal town is condemnable. The goondas who carry out moral policing on innocents must be arrested and stringent punishment should be given."

"It is alleged that the woman was attacked and sexually assaulted after taking her to an isolated place in a car. If it is seen how goondas are let scot free to carry out moral policing, it raises questions on whether the government is alive in the state or turned lifeless," Bommai said.

In an alarming development, the victim released a video on Thursday in which she said that she was repeatedly gang-raped by vigilantes in Haveri district of Karnataka.

The homemaker was dragged out of a hotel after being seen with a person from another religion and beaten up in Hangal town on January 8.

The victim said that when she was at the hotel, a gang of five to six men barged inside, questioned her and took her on their bikes forcibly.

They took her to an isolated place and assaulted her brutally, and later, all of them raped her. Later, they asked her to sit in a car and the driver also raped her.

Her ordeal did not end here. She was taken to two to three places and gang-raped. The accused later took her to a National Highway and she boarded a bus.

"I want them to be punished," she demanded in the video in an appeal to the police.

The husband of the victim has also come before the media and stated that his wife was gang-raped by the gang of vigilantes.

"They had kidnapped and inhumanly attacked my wife. She had opened up about this brutality with one of the family members. She had not told me," he stated.

Reacting to the development, Haveri SP, Anshu Kumar Srivastava, stated that based on the video statement by the victim, a case would be filed and investigated.

Earlier, the woman had gone to the police station in Hangal and made a statement before senior officers and policewomen.

"The gang-rape matter was not reported at that time. Now that she has come out and narrated the incident, her statement would be recorded and stringent action would be initiated in the case," Srivastava stated.