Briton plunges from window of Taj Mahal hotel to escape ‘rapist’
A BRITISH tourist j umped f rom a second f l oor hotel window to escape a potential rape attack during a trip to see the Taj Mahal, Indian police said yesterday.
The terrified woman, said to be a London-based dentist in her thirties, fled after the drunk hotel owner allegedly tried to get into her room at 4am offering a ‘massage’.
She suffered head, rib and leg injuries, but got to the road and hailed a rickshaw which took her to a police station.
She told police that Sachin Chauhan, owner of the Hotel Agra Mahal, in Agra, northern India, woke her by knocking on her door.
Senior superintendent Subhash Chandra Dubey said: ‘When she opened the door, a drunk
‘He was banging
on her door’
Sachin offered her a “free handoil massage” which she refused.
‘After a while Sachin returned and knocked on her door again. This scared the woman.
‘She thought if she opened the door she could be raped or murdered.
‘Eventually Sachin went away but returned for a third time with a security guard and started banging on her door.
‘The woman panicked and leaned out of the window and screamed for help.
‘When the she saw that no help was forthcoming, to save herself, the woman jumped from the window and landed on the first floor balcony and ran down the stairs out of the hotel and on to a tea stall nearby.
‘People in the tea stall helped her hail an autorickshaw which then took her to the Rakabganj Police Station.’ The tourist arrived in Agra on Sunday. Last night she was believed to be being guarded by police at another hotel.
Chauhan, who is being held at a city police station, denies the accusations. He told police he knocked on the woman’s door only because she had asked to be woken up at 4am.
The incident comes after a wave of attacks in India, and on the same day as the Foreign Office updated its advice to urge women travellers to be cautious in the country.
Last week, a 39- year- old Swiss tourist was gang-raped by eight men in Datia , Madhya Pradesh.
In December, the fatal gangrape of a woman on a bus in New Delhi l ed to mass protests demanding government action.
In response, the government passed a law increasing prison terms for rape and providing for the death penalty in rape cases that result in death or coma.
The Foreign Office advises women to avoid solo travel on public transport, espe-cially at night.
It adds: ‘Reported cases of sexual assault against women and young girls are increasing; recent sexual attacks against female visitors in tourist areas and cities show foreign women are also at risk.’
The British High Commission in New Delhi said officials had spoken to the woman and were offering her consular assistance.