Indian Police parade Swiss cyclist gang-rape suspects
INDIA; Police in central India have paraded a group of men on
television who were arrested over the gang-rape and robbery of a Swiss
cyclist who was assaulted while on a holiday with her husband.
Five men, all farmers aged between 20 and 25, were wearing jeans and
shirts and had their faces covered with black cloth when they were lined
up at a police station late Sunday in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh
state.
In her statement to the police, the 39-year-old woman said she had
been raped by four men, with two others present at the time of the
assault late on Friday as the couple pitched their tent in a remote
forested area.
“According to the statement of the woman in FIR (first information
report), four people had raped her. All the four accused have confessed
to gang-raping the woman,” said Dilip Arya, the deputy inspector general
of police.
A sixth suspect, 19, was detained Sunday in neighbouring Uttar
Pradesh state and was being returned to the area.
After being treated in a local hospital, the couple are now in New
Delhi recovering from the attack.
The 30-year-old husband was tied up as the woman was assaulted and
the pair were also robbed, police said.
The home minister of Madhya Pradesh has complained about foreign
tourists not informing local police about their movements as required.
“This is the system but it is not being followed,” the Press Trust of
India news agency quoted Uma Shankar Gupta as saying.
The latest incident, which Monday made it to the front pages of major
Indian newspapers, comes three months after the fatal gang-rape of a
physiotherapy student on a bus in New Delhi.
That attack spurred outrage and countrywide protests over the
treatment of women in Indian society and laws dealing with sexual
crimes.
AFP |