Following public outrage and a diplomatic row between India and Tanzaniza over the physical attack on a Tanzanian woman in Bengaluru, who was allegedly assaulted and stripped by a mob, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara emphatically stated on Thursday that the incident was not a racial attack.
He also contradicted himself in the press conference, when he said initially that she was not 'stripped', but later read out her statement in which she had said her clothes were torn by the mob.
“It is not a racial attack; it was a reaction to the accident by the Sudanese student,” said the minister.
“It is regrettable, the situation worsened only after the police left the incident and the mob took over,” he added.
He categorically denied the allegations of the woman being paraded naked, “She was not stripped or paraded naked.”
The Home Minister's press conference comes a day after the police and the state government faced a lot of flak for not responding to the situation in a timely manner.
It was only four days after the incident, that the police made five arrests. The CM of Karnataka broke his silence only after the External Affairs Minister intervened.
On January 31, the student was travelling in another car, a Wagon-R, along with four other friends and had arrived at the accident spot 30 minutes after the incident occurred. The mob reportedly beat her in the presence of the police. A bystander, who tried to help the woman, was also reportedly attacked.