7 Karnataka men who assaulted interfaith couple charged with rape

mangaloretoday.com/ndtv

Bengaluru, Jan 12, 2024: The seven men who barged into the room of a Karnataka lodge and thrashed an interfaith couple have been charged with rape, the police said.

The rape case was filed against the seven men after the woman - who was in the room with her companion - alleged that the men later took her to a deserted place and took turns to rape her.

 

The video was released by the woman yesterday. She alleged that after raping her in the forest, the attackers forced her into a car and drove her around the city. "The driver also raped me," the woman said in the video.

"They later dropped me at a bus stop. I want them to be punished," she said.

"We weren’t told about rape earlier. We came to know about this only through media report about the video by the woman. We have booked a case under the appropriate section," said Anshu Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Haveri.

Police said the Muslim woman, who is married, was in a relationship with the man she had checked into the hotel with.

The attackers also recorded the videos of the assault. Sources say the men wanted to ensure that the couple didn’t report the crime, so they recorded the videos to blackmail them.

Filmed by the attackers themselves, the videos show the six men waiting outside the room of the lodge in Hanagal Taluk of Haveri District. After recording the room number, they knock on the door and wait. When the door is opened by a man, they barge in and head straight to the woman, who tries to cover her face with a burqa.

Muttering expletives, the men hit the woman so hard that she falls to the floor. The man is also assaulted and then caught by two or three of the attackers when he tries to run out of the room. One of the attackers corners the woman near the bed while another hits her and drags her to the floor again.

Three out of the seven men, who are from the minority community, have been arrested.