Karnataka HC Restricts Political Parties, Associations From Visiting Belagavi Assault Victim

The Karnataka High Court on Saturday directed that no individual, association, or any political party should visit the victim of the Belagavi stripping incident at the hospital without obtaining permission from the medical officer in charge of the hospital or the doctor treating her. 

A 42-year-old woman was stripped naked, paraded and assaulted after being tied to an electric pole in Karnataka’s Belagavi district after his son eloped with a woman. The High Court, while considering the trauma the woman is experiencing, restricted the continuous flow of visitors. 

“The visit of people to the hospital to see the victim, in the circumstances, is not unusual. This Court normally would not like to restrict the freedom of movement of any citizen; however, considering the fact that the victim has suffered unbearable trauma and has been undergoing medical treatment, in our considered opinion, the flow of visitors is likely to affect the health condition of the victim and disturb the ongoing medical treatment as well," Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale said in his order. 

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"Therefore, we deem it appropriate to restrict the visitors in the best interests of the victim and to secure undisturbed medical treatment. In the above backdrop, we direct that no person, individual, group, association, political party, or the like shall visit the place of the victim except with the prior written permission of the medical officer in charge of the hospital or the doctor treating the victim," the order further said. 

In a special sitting held in the chambers, the bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit passed the order after the Chief Justice spotted a news clip on a private television about the visit of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and a delegation of political party to meet the victim. Earlier on December 12, the court took suo moto cognizance of the incident. 

Earlier on Friday, BJP chief JP Nadda formed a five-member fact-finding committee to visit the incident site where the woman was paraded naked. He condemned the incident and attacked the Congress government calling the incident ‘heinous’ and a symptom of the party's "irresponsible behaviour" towards women's safety.