Bengaluru: Temple in-charge, who beat woman & threw her out, arrested

While the woman’s complaint states that Munikrishnappa hurled caste expletives at her, the police said she was not a Dalit

Police have arrested the in-charge of a temple in northern Bengaluru’s Amruthahalli who allegedly pulled a woman’s hair, dragged her out and beat her with an iron rod.

A police officer insisted that the 32-year-old woman was “mentally unsound” and denied that she was a Dalit.

The incident occurred on December 21, 2022, but came to light last week after CCTV footage went viral.

The video shows Munikrishnappa, who is in charge of Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple in Amruthahalli, getting into a spat with the woman.

He pulls her by the hair, drags her onto the floor and slaps her. She collapses but breaks free.

He pulls her again and drags her to the door. But she breaks free again and runs back towards the sanctum sanctorum.

He picks her up again by the hair, slaps her and drags her out. In the walkway, he keeps slapping her and picks up an iron rod to beat her. But she runs away.

He follows and tries to beat her but the priest intervenes and asks her to go away. As she goes away, Munikrishnappa follows her, rod in hand. It is not clear what happened afterwards.

Following a complaint from the woman on January 5, police registered an FIR under IPC sections related to assaulting and threatening a woman with an intent to outrage her modesty, voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult and criminal intimidation.

They arrested Munikrishnappa on Saturday.

A police officer who’s part of the investigation said the woman wanted to sit next to the idol, saying she was the wife of the Hindu deity Venkateshwara. Munikrishnappa had an argument with her and she spat on him, the officer claimed.

While the woman’s complaint states that Munikrishnappa hurled caste expletives at her, the officer said she was not a Dalit.

‘Please give me justice’

She told DH: “Munikrishnappa refused to let me have darshan of the deity, saying I was dirty and that I don’t take a bath. He also called me insane, hit me on the head and the leg and dragged me out.”

She added: “Please give me justice.”