Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday sought a report from the Karnataka government explaining the attack on a Tanzanian girl in Bengaluru.
Congress party General Secretary Digvijay Singh said Rahul has asked the government to send a report on the incident immediately.
"Strongly condemn incident with Tanzanian lady in Bangalore. Police must act strongly against the culprits," tweeted Singh, who is also in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka.
"Rahul Gandhi asks Karnataka Govt to explain and send report immediately," said Singh.
READ: Tanzanian student attack: 'Pained' Sushma Swaraj calls Siddaramaiah
So far, five suspects have been arrested by police in connection with the assault on 21-year-old girl.
In a case of mistaken identity, the Tanzanian girl was attacked on Sunday suspecting her to be a friend of a Sudanese student, Mohammad Ahad, who ran over a local resident, Shabana Taz in Hessarghatta, Bengaluru north.
Ahad was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident, which killed Shabana. He is now in police custody.
"Arrest of the accused has been made on the basis of eye witnesses' account and from the video footage from closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) in the area. We will produce them in a local court for custody and further interrogation," said Bengaluru Police Commissioner N.S. Megharik.
Denying reports in a section of media that the victim was stripped and paraded, Megharik said in his statement that she was only assaulted and molested in which her T-shirt was torn off.
"Though the car mishap was 30 minutes before the victim reached the spot in the other car, the mob thought she was Ahad's friend and assaulted her," deputy police commissioner T.R. Suresh told reporters on Wednesday night.
The victim, a business management student of Acharya College, has also alleged that the bystanders who tried to help her were also beaten up by the mob. The victim also said when she boarded a slow-moving bus to escape her attackers, passengers in the bus pushed her out and into the mob.
The victim has alleged that she was assaulted, stripped off her T-shirt and paraded half-naked in streets by a mob on night of January 31.
The car in which the victim and her friends were travelling was also set alight by the mob.
The legal adviser for the All African Students Union in Bengaluru, Bosco Kaweesi said “police were of no help” when they were approached with the complaint. He also alleged that initially police refused to take the complaint from the victim.
The case is being closely followed by the Ministry of External Affairs and the High Commission of Tanzania.
(With inputs from IANS)
