AFP, New Delhi: Five villagers have confessed to
gang-raping a Swiss tourist in central India, police said Sunday, in an incident
that has renewed focus on the rampant violence against women in the country.
The woman was on a cycling holiday with her husband in
impoverished Madhya Pradesh state when six men attacked the couple on Friday
night, sexually assaulting the woman and robbing the pair, police said.
“We have detained five men and they have confessed to
gang-raping the woman and attacking her husband,” local police official M.S.
Dhodee told AFP.
Police are searching for a sixth man, who was also
involved in the crime, Dhodee said.
The alleged rapists live in a village near the forested
area where the couple had stopped to camp for the night, while on a cycling
trip to the popular tourist destination of Agra in northern India, Dhodee said.
“They were passing by, noticed the couple putting up
their tent and saw an opportunity to attack and rape the woman,” he said.
He added that the five detainees would be arrested
shortly, pending formalities.
After the attack, the rape victim, aged about 40,
underwent a medical examination at a local hospital before leaving for the
Indian capital Delhi, police said.
“The victim and her husband have left for Delhi, since
there was no need for her to stay in hospital here,” another local police
official U.C. Shadangi told AFP.
Shadangi said that police were in touch with Swiss
embassy officials, who declined to comment to AFP about the case.
The Swiss foreign ministry in Bern released a statement
on Saturday expressing deep shock at the “tragic incident”.
The attack comes just
three months after thousands took to the streets in nationwide protests
following the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in
December.
