Observing that it was not satisfied with the actions taken by the government and the state police, the Karnataka high court came down heavily over its failure to prevent the incident and directed the state government to submit an additional status report.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday criticised the Congress-ruled Karnataka government for allowing atrocities against the downtrodden, particularly those belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), citing the recent incident in Belagavi in which a 42-year-old woman was allegedly assaulted and paraded naked.

The alleged incident took place on December 11 after the woman’s son eloped with a girl who was going to get engaged to someone else.

“In @INCIndia there is no ‘nyay’ for the SCs and STs. The recent incident in Belgavi, Karnataka falls in the same category as those repeated atrocities against the Dalits seen till recently in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. For Congress, the downtrodden are just a vote bank,” Sitharaman posted on X.

Her post also contained a detailed note of the incident and observations of the Karnataka high court.

“In a very shocking incident, on the intervening night of 10th and 11th December 2023, a 42-year-old woman was stripped naked, paraded and assaulted after being tied to an electric pole in Karnataka’s Belagavi district after her son eloped with a girl,” the note said.