An obnoxious, unpardonable act

The parading naked of a 42-year old woman in Hosa Vantamuri village of Belagavi district on December 11 has justifiably drawn extremely harsh comments from the division bench of the Karnataka High Court.

The court has taken exception to the outrageous act committed by a group of seven villagers and very rightly remarked that the case requires ‘an extraordinary treatment’ by the court even as it summoned the Police Commissioner of Belagavi.

That a mother of 42 should be stripped, paraded in that state through a village and tied to a pole for her son’s act--which by no stretch of imagination was not illegal--should essentially be a cause for anguish for every citizen concerned with the rule of law in a state like Karnataka.

It was only six months ago that such a similarly outrageous incident in Manipur had raised an uproar all across the nation.

But Karnataka is neither caught in an ethnic conflict nor the State suffers from any general breakdown of law and order for people to commit the extremely abhorrent act.

Not to be missed is the fact that the state legislature is currently holding its winter session in the city and a whole range of key officials, the entire state cabinet and the top functionaries of the Government are staying put at the city.

Unarguably, the incident would go down as the most obnoxious crime committed against a woman this year in a state which prides itself on relatively favourable ranking on index of gender equality and equity.

It is rather grotesque that the group of villagers banded together to act as judge, jury and executioner, all at the same time, in a case which should have raised no eyebrows as the eloping couple were consenting adults and belonged to the same caste.

The fact that the ‘punishment’ was meted out to the mother of the boy, who may not have been even remotely responsible for the son’s act, adds awful rings to the entire episode and urges speedy prosecution and condign punishment to the perpetrators.

It is an unpardonable act and the state should see to it that nothing comes in the way of criminals paying for their sins.