Lakshmisagar is a village with 300 houses situated in Chitradurga taluk. The socially and politically strong Nayaka community resented it when a Nayaka girl Mamata eloped with a Dalit boy Kumara. A Dalit woman Bhagyamma was beaten up by Mamata’s family which accused her of having abetted the love affair.
Bhagyamma told the team that her family was having morning tea around 8 am when 8-10 drunken youth entered the house, dragged her out, beating her all along and stripped her naked. She was so shocked that she defecated and wetted herself. Her husband Sakhanandappa was also not spared. She was dragged naked through the village to Panchayat office in the presence of the whole village and she was beaten with a rod, resulting in head injuries. While she was tormented, one Revanna Siddappa belonging to Nayaka community tried to protect her; he even tried twice or thrice to give her a sari - but every time the sari was torn off. This torture went on for about two hours. The police came and shifted her to hospital at Bhramarasagara, where she was treated. She was discharged after five days when her old mother took her to her village.
Mamata’s father Chidannandappa and her brother Prakasha led the attack on Bhagyamma. Her tormentors included Vasantha (s/o Shivanna), Kumara (Muddeloganna), Prakasha (s/o Bhangira Obanna), Hanumantha (s/o Hullyappa), Prakasha (s/o Chidannandappa), Suresha (s/o Eshwarappa), Obanna (s/o Kuruvanoor Obanna), and Manjunatha (s/o Shivanna).
The police instead of arresting the culprits caught the lovers and enquired about their elopement. Mamata boldly said that Bhagayamma has nothing to do with her love towards Kumara and that they had married of their own free will. Instead of booking cases against the tormentors police have booked a case (IPC 107) against Bhagayamma. On the day the team visited the village, we came to know that Vasantha has been arrested, kept in custody for a day and released on bail.
The team visited Sumitramma, mandal panchayat member belonging to the Dalit community and enquired about the incident. She was sympathetic towards Mamata’s father Chidannandappa and denied that Bhagyamma had been paraded naked, though she agreed that Bhagyamma should not have been beaten. She said that she has not witnessed an inter-caste marriage in the last 20 years that she had spent in the village since her marriage. She said that she herself would have slapped Bhagaymma and would have warned her to desist from indulging in such affairs! Asked if she had visited Bhagyamma, she said no. We told her that being a member of mandal panchayat she had to be more responsible and her role should have been that of defending the rights of women and fundamental rights rather than endorsing caste dictates.
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