Caught on camera: Karnataka minister loses cool, slaps woman in public

Bengaluru, Oct 23: A video of Karnataka Minister allegedly slapping a woman at an event where he distributed land titles has gone viral on varius social media platform. The incident happened in a village in Gundlupet when she went with a plea to resolve her grievance.

The video now gone viral purportedly showed a woman approaching the minister reportedly pleading him to allot a plot. The minister turned angry after he was shoved due to the unruly crowd and slapped the woman. Despite being assaulted, the woman can be seen immediately touching the Minister's feet.

According to reports, BJP's V Somanna, Minister of Infrastructure Development of Karnataka, was in Hangala village of Chamarajanagar district to distribute land titles at a public program when he was confronted by a woman.

Property documents were given to landless people who were occupying government land for residential purposes but had not secured any ownership of it till now.

The minister is learnt to have apologised for his behaviour, while the woman too later claimed that the minister was only consoling her after she tried to prostrate before him with a plea to allot her a government plot.

Reacting to the video, Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh criticised the minister for his purported conduct. ''What a difference from the way @RahulGandhi began the Karnataka leg of #BharatJodoYatra from the very same Gundlupet on 30th September! This shameless man should be sacked immediately!'' Ramesh tweeted.

The Congress MP was referring to Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra, which entered Karnataka from Gundlupet last month, where the incident occurred on Saturday.

Congress's Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "On one hand, people suffer the huge brunt of 40 percent commission and on the other, women get slapped by ministers drunk with power. Where is our PM? Will you dismiss the minister, Mr Bommai."

This is not the first time a BJP minister has been seen abusing people in public. Last year, in December, Law Minister JC Madhuswamy was seen abusing a woman farmer in full public view.