Police officials in Hassan district arrested a man after a video of him assaulting his daughter with a hammer emerged on Tuesday.
The video showed Prashanth, 47, charging towards his 12-year-old daughter with a hammer in-hand. Prashanth was in an inebriated condition and hit his daughter on her left hand. The video, which was shared widely on social media, was being filmed by the daughter.
The incident occurred around 10 pm on November 2 in the residence of Prashanth and his family in Champakanagar in Sakaleshpura of Hassan district.
In a complaint filed by Janaki, a Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) working in Hassan, it was stated that Prashanth, had come home in an inebriated condition. At the time, his wife and two daughters were at home.
Prashanth picked up a hammer and began to taunt the 12-year-old girl, who was shooting a video to show her grandfather. The complaint said that Prashanth assaulted the girl by hitting her left hand with the hammer while she was filming. An FIR was registered based on the complaint and Prashanth was charged under section 324 of the IPC and under sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
In the video, Prashanth, who appears to be visibly drunk, also refers to the popular Kannada film KGF before proceeding to hit his daughter. "Have you seen KGF?", Prashanth taunted with the hammer in-hand. He then says, "I will hit you all with this hammer. My father used to hit us as well."
He then charges at the girl and swings the hammer, hitting her on her left arm. Even though a visible red bruise was seen on her arm, she was given medical treatment at home by her mother, child protection officials said. The girl was taken to a hospital for treatment by the CDPO before a complaint was filed in the Sakaleshpura Town Police Station.
Prashanth was arrested on Tuesday and produced before a local court. The child was counselled at the Hassan Child Protection Unit. "We decided to take a precaution and bring her in for counselling. She told us that this was the first incident like this and that her father did not have a habit of hitting her. We will be taking assurances from her father when he is out on bail that this will not occur again," an official at the unit told TNM.