Three men were arrested on Saturday after the gang rape of a Spanish tourist who was traveling on a motorbike with her husband in a remote region of eastern India, according to local media.
The attack took place on Friday evening in the Dumka district of the eastern state of Jharkhand, where the couple had stopped to spend the night in a tent.
The Spanish tourist was able to reach a patrolling police van around 11 p.m. and was taken to Dumka Hospital for treatment, police officer Pitamber Singh Kherwar told The Times of India newspaper.
He said that after arresting three people in connection with the attack, police were searching for other suspects.
According to him, seven men were involved, according to a video broadcast by Asian News International (ANI).
An investigation is underway.
#WATCH |
Dumka, Jharkhand: On the Spanish woman's alleged gangrape case, SP Pitamber Singh Kherwar says, "As the victims were speaking in Spanish English which we were not able to understand, we took them to hospital where it was discovered that it is a case of gangrape of the… pic.twitter.com/n0OtRspMbe
— ANI (@ANI) March 2, 2024
In 2022, almost 90 rapes were reported every day on average in India, according to official national data.
However, many cases go unreported due to stigmatization of victims and a lack of confidence in police investigations.
Convictions remain rare, with the prosecution of cases stalled for years in India's clogged criminal justice system.
But in January, the Supreme Court overturned the release of 11 men convicted of gang rape.
The shock after the gang rape and murder of a student in 2012
Jyoti Singh, a physiotherapy student and her friend Awindra Pratap Pandey were returning from the cinema on the evening of December 16, 2012, when they boarded a bus, believing that it would take them safely.
The gang rape and murder of incredible brutality, on a bus in the Indian capital, of an Indian student shocked the whole world in 2012.
But the bus driver and his five accomplices, including a 17-year-old teenager, took them on board for the horror.
Awindra was brutally beaten, and Jyoti raped by the six attackers and tortured with extreme cruelty.
Then the attackers threw the two bloodied victims from the bus to the side of the road.
Singh survived long enough to identify his six attackers.
Also read Perpetrators of New Delhi gang rape sentenced to death
Five adults and a juvenile were charged with 13 offenses two months later, and four men were hanged in 2020. The main defendant was found dead in his prison cell, a month after being charged.
The death of Jyoti, nicknamed “Nirbhaya” (“fearless”) by the Indian press, sparked major protests and forced the government to adopt harsher sentences for rapists and the death penalty for repeat offenders.