Vijayapura rural police arrested seven persons, including the gram panchayat president, on charges of tonsuring, assaulting and parading two youths by garlanding slippers in Hegadihala village, officials said on Saturday.
According to the police, the twin brothers allegedly attempted to rape a woman in their community while working in Maharashtra last week. However, police said no rape charges have been registered against the brothers since the woman has not filed a complaint.
The brothers and the woman belong to the Lambani scheduled caste community and are staying at Hegadihala village under Vijayapura rural police station limits.
The people of the community go to neighbouring Maharashtra for employment as migrant labourers and come back to their village, police.
After returning from Maharashtra, the woman complained to her parents and elders of Tanda (colony) about the incident. Gram panchayat president Ram Singh Lamani convened a panchayat and ordered to tonsure both the brothers and paraded them by garlanding slippers on February 10, police said.
The video went viral on social media, and the youths complained to the police about the desecration by community elders.
The Vijayapura rural police arrested Lamani, villagers Anil Lamani, Mangesh, Hemu, Raju, Channu and Ramesh on Saturday.
“Soon after receiving the complaint, we have arrested all the seven accused, including the prime accused gram panchayat president and registered an FIR against all of them under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” Vijayapura rural sub inspector Girish Uppar said.
The accused have been booked under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly for a common cause), 323 (causing hurt), 355 (assaulting), 504 (intentional insult), and 506 (threatening with life) of the IPC.
All the accused were produced before the Vijayapura JMFC court, which remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days, police said.
“As all the accused belong to the same community, the SC/ST atrocity Act does not apply to the case,” Uppar said.
