HUBBALLI: The Haveri police have suspended two officers, including the inspector of Hangal police station, over the violent moral policing and gang rape case that was reported on January 8.
Haveri SP Anshu Kumar Srivastava has issued a suspension notice to the CPI Hangal SR Sridhar and constable Eliaz Shetasanadi, over negligence in performing their duties.
Senior police officials said the case was registered four days after the incident of moral policing was reported, and later the gangrape case was added to it.
There was also a delay in arresting the remaining five accused, after the arrest of three persons on January 14.
Two days ago, the police took the victim to her hometown in Uttara Kannada district, even as she was under treatment.
The Haveri police on Tuesday registered a suo motu case in a moral policing incident against the attackers.
The gang rape case was reported against the same group, after the victim gave a statement before the magistrate.
The police have arrested Aftab Chandanakatti, Madarasab Mandakki, Abdul Khadar, Jafarsab Hanchinamani, Imran Bashir Ahmed Jekinakatti, Rehan Ahmed Walikar, Sadiq Babusab Agasimani, Shoaib Niyaz Ahmed Mulla, and Mohammad Saif.
On January 8, the men had barged into a lodge in Hangal in Haveri district of the state, where a married woman, 26, and her male friend, 40, were inside a room. Accusing them of being an interfaith couple, the gang beat up the duo and also verbally abused them. They also threatened to kill the duo. Videos of the attack in the lodge room had gone viral. The assailants themselves had filmed the attack.
According to the woman's statement, the gang then abducted her on a two-wheeler. The men had come on three motorcycles. As per the victim’s statement, she was gang-raped several times in a forest area nearby and later taken around in a car, where she alleged that the driver too raped her. The accused later dropped her at a bus stand.
"They first hit me brutally and later raped me one after another. Despite my plea, they didn’t stop and took me to different places. A person who was driving the car also raped me and all the men who are seen in the viral video have raped me. I have lost everything. All I want is justice," the survivor who is from the minority community said.