Tanzanian student was not stripped, claims K'taka Police

Karnataka Director General of Police (DGP) Om Prakash, who met the Tanzanian student as part of the investigation process on Thursday, said that the victim was not stripped and paraded.

"She did not say that she was stripped and paraded. Yesterday, when she gave in writing, it was found that her top cloth was found removed, which she realised subsequently. Initially her statement could not be recorded, that is why Section 355 was in place," Prakash told the media here.

"I checked the case by going to the police station. I talked to the victim. I did not record her statement because it should be part of a detailed inquiry. In many places, the people have reacted in the similar manner. Law is same for everyone and we will take action as per the law," he added.

Karnataka Home Minister G. Parmeshwara earlier said that the attack on the Tanzanian student was 'not a racial attack'.

"It's not a racial attack. It is just a response to the accident. Bengaluru does not have that kind of an attitude," Parmeshwara told a press conference.

This came after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah gave a factual report about the incident to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Swaraj had earlier condemned the attack on the Tanzanian student and asked for stringent punishment for the guilty.

The Bengaluru Police had yesterday filed an FIR against some unknown persons in connection with the assault on a 21-year-old Tanzanian student.

The Tanzanian student was beaten and then stripped by a group of locals in Bengaluru after they assumed she was part of an incident in which a Sudanese man had run over a local woman.

The incident took place on Hesaraghatta Road in Bengaluru on Saturday night after a Sudanese national ran his car over a 35-year-old woman resulting in on the spot death of the woman.

The Tanzanian student was travelling in another car, a Wagon-R, along with four others. The young woman, who arrived on the spot around 30 minutes later, was dragged out of the car and paraded naked after being stripped by the mob.

The victim told the police in her complaint that when she tried to get on a bus in order to escape the assault, the people on the bus pushed her back towards the mob.