Indian police question 20 men after Swiss tourist gang-raped

[Simmons]

Indian police question 20 men after Swiss tourist gang-raped

No arrests made as officers hunt for seven or eight men who raped woman and attacked her husband as they were camping

Associated Press in New Delhi
Sunday 17 March 2013 10.43 GMT

A security official at the site where a Swiss woman was gang-raped in central India. Photograph: Strdel/AFP/Getty Images

Police in central India have detained 20 men after a Swiss woman on a cycling trip with her husband was gang-raped.

No arrests have been made, but police were questioning the men in connection with the rape on Friday night in the Datia district of Madhya Pradesh state, said senior officer DK Arya.

The couple told police that the woman had been raped by seven or eight men, but that it was dark and they could not be sure of the exact number, Arya said. They said the husband also was attacked by the men.

The woman, 39, was treated on Saturday at a hospital in the nearby city of Gwalior and was released later that day, police said.

Arya said that as an initial step, police have registered a rape case against seven men while they search nearby villages for suspects.

The attack comes three months after the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman on a New Delhi bus outraged Indians and spurred the government to pass laws to protect women.

The couple, who were on a three-month holiday in India, had visited the temple town of Orchha and were planning to cycle to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, nearly 130 miles away.

They set out from Orchha on Friday and pitched their tent in a forest near Jatia village when they were attacked by a group of men armed with wooden sticks, police said.

The men beat up the husband, tied him to a tree and then raped the woman, police said.

The Swiss ambassador in India, Linus von Castelmur, has spoken to the couple and has demanded a swift investigation of the incident.

He said he was "most distressed" by the incident and has assured the couple of the Swiss government's help and support.

"Their health and treatment is the priority of the moment," the Swiss embassy said in a statement.

The embassy said it was in touch with local authorities in Madhya Pradesh and has urged a "swift investigation and for justice to be done".

The gang-rape in December of the 23-year-old student in New Delhi set off nationwide protests, sparking a debate about the treatment of women in India and highlighting the inability of law enforcement agencies to protect them.

One of six suspects in the December attack was found dead in a jail last week. Authorities said he hanged himself, but his family and lawyer claim foul play was involved, and a magistrate is investigating. Four other men and a juvenile remain on trial for the attack.

 

[Simmons]

Arrests made over horrific gang rape of Swiss tourist

Date March 18, 2013

Ben Doherty
South Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media

Traumatising: A Swiss woman is escorted to a medical examination at a hospital in Gwalior by police. Photo: AP

Five villagers have confessed to the gang rape of a Swiss tourist in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, as police seek a sixth man for the crime.

In another shocking blow for India's international reputation, the 39-year-old woman was attacked by an armed group of men, who beat her and gang-raped her in front of her husband, who was handcuffed and assaulted.

The men arrested are all reportedly members of the Kanjar tribe, a historically nomadic ethnic group who, traditionally, sold rope and other crafts to villagers, but who also have a reputation for violence, kidnapping, and "dacoity", or banditry.

MP Police official MS Dhodee said the attack was a spur-of-the-moment crime.

"We have detained five men and they have confessed to gang-raping the woman and attacking her husband," he said.

"They were passing by, noticed the couple putting up their tent and saw an opportunity to attack and rape the woman."

A sixth man, from the same Kanjar community, is being sought over his role in the crime.

The woman and her husband, residents of Lausanne, were cycling through the central Indian province from the tourist site of Orchcha, to Agra, site of the Taj Mahal.

Shortly after 9pm, the men invaded the couple's campsite near a village. They beat the man with sticks before handcuffing him and raping the woman in front of him.

The men fled, taking with them the couple's mobile phones, computer and cash.

The couple flagged a passing motorist to reach a police station at Datia district.

The Swiss Embassy in New Delhi has called for a "swift investigation and justice". The Ambassador has been in contact with the couple.

Madhya Pradesh, Hindi for Central Province, has a largely rural, poor, and conservative Hindu, population.

But the state has, for the past two decades, recorded the highest number of rape cases of any province in the country.

In 2011 (the most recent complete figures available) there were 3406 reported cases of rape in Madhya Pradesh: nine women raped every day.

The rape of the Swiss national comes three months after the gang rape and fatal bashing of a 23-year-old woman on a Delhi bus sparked outrage across India.

The woman was raped for nearly an hour by five men and a youth, and beaten and raped with an iron bar, before she was thrown, naked and unconscious, from the moving vehicle onto the road.

Her death, 13 days later in a Singapore hospital from horrific internal injuries, provoked massive protests across India over the treatment of women, and forced the government to legislate for harsher punishments of rapists.

The main suspect in that case was found dead in his prison cell last week. Police said Ram Singh hanged himself, but his family believe he was murdered.

In a disturbingly similar case to the Delhi attack, but in the state of Madhya Pradesh, a 38-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped near Indore on Friday.

Three men, including the conductor and the driver, allegedly raped the woman on board the bus after all the other passengers got off.

with AFP