Tanzanian woman assaulted, stripped naked by mob in Bengaluru

Bengaluru, February 3

A Tanzanian woman was beaten and forcibly stripped naked by a mob in Bengaluru in a case of mistaken identity, police said on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old woman — a student studying BBM in the city — claimed she and three other friends had been dragged out of her car and assaulted by a group that assumed she was with a Sundanese man who had just run over a city resident on Hesaraghatta Road in Bengaluru on Saturday night.

The mob also pulled her down from a bus she tried to board to escape, All African Students Union’s legal adviser Bosco Kaweesi said on Wednesday.

“This girl arrived at the spot 30 minutes after the accident from a different direction. They saw a mob beating a man who had caused the accident. The woman had no connection with him,” Kaweesi said.

The woman’s friends were also assaulted.

Kaweesi also claimed police had been unhelpful when they were approached.

"It was mistaken identity," Police Commissioner NS Megharikh said, adding that the driver of the car that killed a 35-year old woman was assaulted by a mob and was currently in police custody.

He said some 200–300 people were present during the incident and that police were trying to identify who were involved. — Agencies