Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Thursday appeared to question the need for a visit of the National Commission for Women member Khushbu Sundar to Udupi to inquire into an alleged “washroom filming case” at a paramedical college at a time when the NCW has “not gone” to Manipur, where two women were molested and paraded naked recently.
“Is this incident in Udupi of that magnitude,” he asked while talking to reporters in Bengaluru.
“Let them come, I don’t say — who has to come, who has to see — all that. Manipur incident…I don’t know what to call it, and there the commission has not gone. Is this incident in Udupi of that magnitude?” Parameshwara said in response to a question regarding the NCW’s visit.
“I don’t say — you don’t come. Why should you come — I don’t say that. I’m not the person to say that. Let them come, but you should also say what you found. Was there any video of this incident or anything?” NCW member Sundar arrived in Udupi on Wednesday evening to enquire into the alleged filming of a girl on a mobile phone by other female students in the washroom of a paramedical college in the city.
The Manipur incident to which Parameshwara was referring to is regarding the video showing two women being paraded naked and molested by a group of men on May 4 in Kangpokpi district that surfaced on July 19 and was condemned countrywide.
Responding to a question on the delay in filing FIR in connection with the Udupi College case, the minister said, “Police were waiting for someone to give the complaint. Naturally, they did not want to take it to that level. Now suo motu they had to do it because there was so much attraction this (issue) had created.” Parameshwara had on Wednesday dubbed the filming of a girl student in the restroom by fellow female students in a Udupi college as “a small incident blown out of proportion”.
Clarifying his “a small issue” remark, he said the intention was not to neglect the case, but what he meant was that the issue should have been left to the college principal to handle, who after analysing the details would have escalated to the parents and police, rather than outsiders giving different twists to the issue.
“I and you have studied in colleges and stayed in hostels, and there would have been certain incidents between friends and it would have been left there itself and not escalated. I had said this too might be of a similar nature,” he said. The issue should have been left to the college principal, who has already suspended the students.
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