Karnataka moral policing case: Gang of six men assault interfaith couple inside hotel room, two arrested

Haveri: In a case of moral policing, a gang of six men allegedly barged into a hotel room and assaulted an interfaith couple during their stay in Hanagal Taluk of Haveri district, following which two of them have been arrested, police said on Thursday.

The incident happened on January 8. At 1 pm, a 26-year-old married woman who belongs to a minority community checked into the hotel room with a KSRTC driver aged 40, with whom she has been in a relationship for the past three years, they said.

The entire assault which happened inside the hotel room was filmed by the gang. The videos later became viral after they got circulated on social media platforms, police said.

In one of the purported videos, six men could be seen knocking on the door of a room. When a man opens the door, the assailants could be seen barging in and heading towards the woman. The gang verbally abused the couple, assaulted them and filmed the woman while she tried to cover her face with a burqa.

According to police, when the couple entered the hotel, they were spotted by an auto rickshaw driver. Seeing the woman clad in a burqa with a man from another community, he immediately alerted the gang of local boys who also belonged to the minority community. Within 15 minutes, a gang of six men aged between 23 and 26, arrived at the hotel and started searching for the couple.

They allegedly barged into the hotel room and started attacking the couple. Seeing them, the woman tried to cover her face, but they assaulted them and questioned their presence at the hotel. They also eventually dragged them out of the room, a senior police officer said.

The gang who arrived on three motorcycles drove the couple to an isolated place which was about a kilometer away from the hotel. Upon reaching there, they started thrashing the couple. They also abused the woman and hit her with sticks, he said.

Thereafter, the gang gave her Rs 500 and told her to go to her native place. She later went to Sirsi where her husband lives. She has a seven-year-old girl child, the police officer said, and added that the gang fled from the place.

The police got to know about the matter only a day after the incident and taking cognisance of the issue, they traced the couple. Based on a complaint from the victim, a case was registered on Wednesday and two men who were involved in the incident were arrested.

Though the woman has not stated about any gang rape in her recorded statement, her husband has alleged that she was raped by the accused gang but he has not given a written complaint in this regard so far, the officer said.

The accused members are not affiliated to any organisation, police said, adding the two arrested so far do not have any criminal background but that needs to be verified, the police said.

"We have arrested two of the gang members. The third suspect has been hospitalised since he met with an accident a day after the alleged incident. Once he is discharged, he will be taken into custody. We have already identified the remaining three suspects and they will also be nabbed soon. Our team has been trying to trace them. We also have video evidence of the assault," the police officer added.

Presently, a case under sections 354 (b) (Assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 363 (kidnapping), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 448 (house trespass), 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly with common intention) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered, according to the police.