Woman Paraded Naked In Karnataka: Anguish Court Asks Where Is Women Commission?; Summons Commissioner

In an extraordinary case of brutality and heinous crime, a woman was paraded naked in a village of Karnataka's Belagavi district. Expressing anguish and hearing the matter, the Karnataka High Court said "it will have extraordinary treatment at our hands". According to the reports, the incident took place on December 11 after her son eloped with a girl whose engagement was slated for the next day.

The woman was paraded naked and tied to an electric pole, the reports added.

Advocate General presented a memo and some documents related to the documents about the action being taken in the case before the division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit.

"The least we can say is that we are not satisfied with the way things took place post the incident. AG seeks some time to submit additional reports. Accordingly, learned AG is permitted to place on record an additional status report on Monday," the bench ordered.

The division bench also sumouned the investigating police officials, Assistant Commissioner, and Belagavi Police Commissioner on December 18.

Taking cognizance of the serious crime against a woman, and the accused ran away easily after committing it, the HC said, "Tell your inspector not to have lunch and dinner till he is arrested."

The bench observed: "This is a shame to all of us. We cannot expect this situation after 75 years of freedom. It is a question for us, are we going into the 21st century or going back to the 17th century? "Are we going to see equality or progressiveness or are we going back to the 17th and 18th centuries? Our anguish makes us use such harsh words. We are exceeding but we can't help. We feel the least we can do is express our anguish in some harsh words," the bench said.

The HC further observed that "This (incident) will be affecting the future generation. Are we creating a society where there is a chance to dream for a better future or we are creating a society where somebody will feel it is better to die than to live? Where there is no respect for a lady." During the arguments, the HC noted that the accused were also from the SC/ST Community and therefore the case does not attract provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

During the hearing, the court said "speechless that the Women's Commission was not in the picture yet."

"With a very heavy heart, we have to say that the Commission for Women acts on what somebody says in a TV debate but when this is done where is the commission? Have they taken cognizance? Any women's rights or human rights commission have done anything? No personal visit to the spot or family. We are speechless what can we say."

The Court said it was an extraordinary case and it will get "extraordinary treatment at our hands."