Bangalore: Thirty-five of the 60 women arrested for illegal occupation of houses in the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) housing complex in Lingarajapuram on Friday have said that no woman police officer was present at the time of their arrest and they had been separated from their young children.

They told a team of lawyers of the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) who visited the Parappana Agrahara prison on Saturday that most of them had very young children who were left behind at the time of their arrest. Uma, one of those arrested, said that she had a two-and-a-half-year-old child who had a heart ailment. She said she had no idea where her child was. Some of them said they were still nursing their babies.

Rajasri alias Mary, 48, told the team that she had been hit on the head before being arrested, but was yet to be given any medical attention.

The arrested women also complained that they were not given blankets in the jail at night.

Sheela Ramanathan of the HRLN told The Hindu that a woman is entitled to keep her child aged below six in the prison as per the Prisons Act, and separating a child from the mother is a blatant violation of her right.

Women could not be arrested in the absence of a woman police officer, she added.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail