Tribal woman stripped, assaulted; 9 including BJP leader booked: reports

In a shocking incident, a tribal woman was allegedly stripped and assaulted by a group of nine people in a village in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada district, police sources said.

They said the incident occurred on April 19 in front of several villagers at Guripalla village in Belthangady taluk of the district. Cases have been registered against all the accused.

The nine persons were booked based on a complaint from the 35-year-old woman, who alleged that the gang tore her clothes, made her semi-nude and shot a video of the incident.

Her elder sister and mother were also assaulted, the woman said in the complaint.

The accused have been identified as Sandeep (30), Santhosh (29), Gulabi (55), Suguna (30), Kusuma (38), Lokayya (55), Anil (35), Lalitha (40) and Chenna Keshava (40), all belonging to the victim’s village, police said.

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Sources said the incident occurred when a team of revenue department officials reached the village to measure the government land where the complainant and her elder sister were staying as per the application given by the woman to the authorities.

The accused objected to the work done by the officials and created a commotion forcing the surveyors to leave the spot, after which the nine-member gang assaulted the woman, sources said.

Belthangady police are investigating the case.