Seven men raped a tourist: “They put knives to her throat”

High-profile case highlights problem of sexual violence in India

Seven men are currently in custody in India for allegedly gang-raping a tourist and assaulting her husband, authorities said in the case , which shed new light on the endemic problem of sexual violence against women in the country

Photo: ru.wikipedia.org

Late last week, Indian police announced that three men had been arrested in connection with the incident and that they were looking for four more. Deputy Commissioner of Police Anjaneyulu Dodde confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that four more suspects are now in custody.

The couple, who were traveling on a motorcycle from West Bengal state to neighboring Nepal, were spotted late Friday by police officers on patrol. said Pitambar Singh Kherwar, superintendent of police of Dumka district in Jharkhand state.

They were taken to the hospital, where the woman told the doctor that she had been raped, he said.

Police formed a special investigation team, Herwar said. It is unclear whether the suspects have legal representation.

CNN is not naming the female victim under Indian law, which prohibits naming victims of sexual assault. Police have not released the couple's names or nationalities.

The arrests came after a pair of travel bloggers posted on their social media account on Saturday that they had “knives to their throats” during an attack in India. According to them, the woman was raped and taken to the hospital for DNA testing.

The couple publishes posts in Spanish, while the woman writes on her social network page that she is Brazilian.

In In her social media story, the woman showed off the bruises on her face, saying: “This is what my face looks like, but that's not what hurts the most. I thought I was going to die.”

In a follow-up post on Sunday, the couple thanked their followers for their support, saying they were doing well and that “police are doing their best to catch” the remaining suspects.

India's National Commission for Women (NCW) condemned the alleged attack. NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma spoke to the victim and provided all necessary assistance, the organization said on Platform X on Saturday.

Jharkhand Minister Mithilesh Kumar Thakur called the alleged attack a “condemnable incident.”

India has struggled with high rates of violence against women for years, and a number of high-profile rape cases involving foreign visitors have drawn international attention to the issue.

In 2018, a British woman was allegedly raped on the way to her hotel in the western state of Goa, a popular tourist destination; two years earlier, an American woman was allegedly drugged and raped by a group of men in her five-star hotel room in New Delhi. And in 2013, six men were sentenced to life imprisonment for the gang rape of a Swiss tourist.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau of India, a total of 31,516 cases of rape were reported in 2022, with an average of 86 cases per month. day, notes CNN. And experts warn that the number of reported cases is only a fraction of what could be the real number in a deeply patriarchal country where shame and stigma surround rape victims and their families.