8, including two women, arrested for kidnapping and assaulting wedding photographer

BELAGAVI: Eight people, including two women, have been arrested for kidnapping a wedding photographer from a wedding hall here and assaulting him. All the accused have been sent to judicial custody while the victim is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Bailhongal.

CCTV footage shows some of the accused entering the wedding hall and taking away the photographer.

Last Friday, Umesh Basappa Hosur, a resident of Bailhongal, was at the KPTCL Kalyana Mantap in Belagavi to take photographs at a wedding ceremony. While he was at work, four people approached him claiming that they wanted to speak to him, took him outside the wedding hall, bundled him into car and took him to Chivatagundi Cross in Bailhongal taluk where eight people assaulted him with iron rods. They also allegedly threatened him of life.

The accused have been remanded to judicial custody by a court.

Belagavi Police Commissioner Iada Martin Marbaniang said, “Umesh was kidnapped from the wedding hall and assaulted near Bailhongal. He somehow managed to escape and lodged a complaint with the Bailhongal police, but as the kidnapping occurred in Belagavi, the case was transferred to the Malmaruti police station. All the accused are in judicial custody.”

Police Commissioner Iada Martin Marbaniang briefing the media about the kidnapping incident.

Further, he said, “Umesh and the accused worked together earlier and he had got quite close with one of the accused as they both had worked for 12-13 years together. But when it came to the issue of marriage, Umesh had said he would go by his family’s choice of bride. The accused kidnapped and assaulted him to teach him a lesson”.