ARRESTS MADE IN RAPE OF SWISS TOURIST
Swiss woman attacked as she and her husband camped Friday in central Indian forest
NEW DELHI — Police said they arrested five men Sunday in connection with the gang rape of a Swiss woman who was attacked in central India while on a cycling vacation with her husband.
All five men admitted to the attack, which occurred Friday night as the woman and her husband camped out in a forest in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh state, said D. K. Arya, a senior police officer.
Arya said the men, who are from nearby villages, were arrested in Datia. Police were searching for two other men believed to have been involved in the attack, he said.
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 Saturday at a hospital in nearby Gwalior and was released later that day, police said. The couple
Figures from India’s National Crime Records Bureau show that a woman is raped every 20 minutes in India. However, many incidents of rape and other sexual crimes go unreported due to the stigma attached to such crimes in the conservative country.
were planning to travel to the Indian capital of New Delhi, about 400 kilometres to the north, Arya said.
The attack came three months after the fatal gang rape of a woman aboard a New Delhi bus outraged Indians.
The couple, who were on a three- month vacation in India, had visited the temple town of Orchha and had planned to visit the Taj Mahal, nearly 210 kilometres 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. They also stole the couple’s cellphone, laptop computer and 10,000 rupees ($ 185). Police said they recovered the laptop and phone from one of the men who was arrested.
The Swiss ambassador in India, Linus von Castelmur, said he spoke with the couple and assured them of the Swiss government’s help and support.
The embassy said it was in touch with authorities in Madhya Pradesh and has urged a “swift investigation and for justice to be done.”
Figures from India’s National Crime Records Bureau show that a woman is raped every 20 minutes in India. However, many incidents of rape and other sexual crimes go unreported due to the stigma attached to such crimes in the conservative country. India’s conviction rate for rapes and other crimes against women is among the lowest in the world.
Last month, the Swiss government issued a travel notice for India that included a warning about “increasing numbers of rapes and other sexual offences” in the South Asian country, and the latest incident could prompt other countries to issue similar warnings.