More men nabbed for Spanish tourist’s gang rape
Police in India have arrested five more men in connection with the gang rape of a Spanish tourist, raising the number of those detained to eight, local media reported on Tuesday.
The attack on the woman, who was on a motorbike trip with her husband, took place last week in the Dumka district of eastern Jharkhand state, where the couple was camping.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency broadcasted footage of five suspects, handcuffed and tied to each other in a line by a rope, in front of seated police officers.
On Monday, three other men appeared in court, also with sacks on their heads, and were later remanded in custody.
“The three [arrested earlier] gave a new statement, in which they mentioned five more names, so … we have arrested eight [suspects] in total,” PTI quoted senior local police officer Pitamber Singh Kherwar as saying.
Any of the men, if found guilty, would face “strict punishment,” Kherwar said, adding that the police “are forming a strong case against them.”
The authorities have handed a check of $12,000 to the couple as compensation under a “victim compensation scheme,” broadcaster NDTV reported.
The woman, who identified herself on social media, posted a statement after the latest arrests.
“They have caught all the criminals, and there were eight in total,” she wrote, thanking the “efficient” police. “I ask for justice ... [for] all of the women who also have to go through this.”
An average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in India in 2022, data from the National Crime Records Bureau show.
But large numbers go unreported due to prevailing stigmas around victims and a lack of faith in police investigations.
Convictions remain rare, with cases getting stuck for years in India’s clogged-up criminal justice system.
The notorious gang rape and murder of Indian student Jyoti Singh made global headlines in 2012.
The 23-year-old physiotherapy student was raped, assaulted and left for dead by five men and a teenager on a bus in the capital New Delhi in December that year.
The horrific crime shone an international spotlight on India’s high levels of sexual violence and sparked weeks of protests. This eventually led to a change in the law, introducing the death penalty for rape.