Belagavi, Dec 18 (IANS): National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) DIG Sunil Kumar Meena arrived in Karnataka's Belagavi city on Monday to investigate the Vantamuri incident pertaining to stripping, assaulting and parading a 42-year-old Dalit woman naked.

Meena will gather preliminary information about the incident at the Circuit House in Belagavi city and later meet the victim at the Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences (BIMS) hospital.

After the case was transferred from the jurisdictional Kakathi police station to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Sunday night, the state special wing's investigators, led by a female Superintendent of Police (SP), are also visiting the victim and the village.

The team will meet the victim and is likely to record statements from eyewitnesses in the village. The police have already arrested 11 persons in connection with the case, and one of the main accused is yet to be apprehended.

The state BJP staged a statewide protest condemning the incident. Sources in the state BJP explained that the issue is likely to be raised in Parliament on Monday to target the Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) alliance partners.

BJP National President J. P. Nadda had formed a five-member fact-finding committee comprising party MPs and the National Secretary of the party to investigate the incident. The team visited Belagavi and submitted the report to the party.

The Congress government had announced Rs 5 lakh compensation for the victim, while the Belagavi District Legal Authority will give Rs 50,000 to her.

The incident occurred on December 10 when the victim, a resident of Vantamuri village, was dragged outside and stripped naked. She was paraded naked and tied to an electric pole and assaulted after her son eloped with a girl from the village. The family members of the girl, infuriated by this, unleashed terror on the boy's mother.

The Karnataka High Court strongly criticised the Congress government for the failure of the police department to prevent the incident.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice P. B. Varale and Justice Krishna S. Dixit, had remarked, "What will be the fear among other women? She will feel unsafe in the country. It did not even happen in Mahabharata. Draupadi had Lord Krishna who came up to help her, but in the modern world, no one came to help her. Unfortunately, this is a world of Duryodhanas and Dushasanas."