Karnataka: Woman braves 15km trek in heat to report hubby’s threat

HUBBALLI: A 24-year-old woman, with her four-month-old son in arms, walked nearly 15km under the blazing sun in Bagalkot district on Thursday to seek police protection from her jail-returned husband, who threatened to kill them late Wednesday.
Ashwini Dandige decided to walk from Tamanal to Cholachagudda in Bagalkot district’s Badami taluk, about 510km from Bengaluru, due to nonavailability of vehicles following the Covid-19 lockdown, despite the temperature hitting 40 degrees Celsius.
Ashiwni and Devaraj, 28, have been married for seven years with two children; the first is five years old.
Devaraj’s alleged second marriage soured their relationship in the past six months. After Ashwini’s first complaint months ago, Devaraj was arrested and incarcerated for four months. He was released on Wednesday after he secured bail.
“Ours is an inter-caste marriage, and Devaraj’s family was opposed to it. We lived in the same village and we were happy...” Ashwini said.
‘Hubby threatened to kill me, children’
I delivered my first child five years ago. Trouble started after I went to my parents’ house for my second delivery in December 2019. During this time, my husband got married again,” she said.
“This led to frequent altercations. I filed a case after he started harassing us and threatened to leave home. On Wednesday, he threatened to kill me and my children. I decided to seek police protection and walked from my village to Cholachagudda. From there, cops took me in their vehicle to Badami police station,” she added.
Police said they will summon the couple and try to resolve the problem or file another case against Devaraj.