Five men to be charged with gang-rape of American woman in Delhi

NEW DELHI (Diya TV) — Delhi police will book five men, including one who works as a tour guide in the country, for the brutal gang-raping of an American woman at a luxury hotel in the capital in March.

Police said Sunday they first received news of the complaint via email, adding the woman said she would return to India to record her statement once an First Information Report was registered.

According to police, the woman said she arrived in India in March 2016 on a tourist visa and stayed at a five-star hotel near Connaught Place. She hired the services of a tour guide using the recommendations of the hotel’s concierge staff, police said. One day, while she was in her room, the guide offered to discuss the details of a tourist route and arrived at her hotel with four of his friends in tow, they added.

They went up to her room and had a few drinks together, following which the guide forced himself on her, police said. The friends then took turns to rape her as well, according to Sunday’s statement.

The woman fled India immediately and returned to the U.S., and said in her email that she had not shared with her family details of the event, which sent her plunging into depression, she added. She later approached a lawyer friend, who suggested she approach an NGO on India affairs and raise the matter. Members of the NGO she spoke with suggested she register an official complaint via email with the police commissioner.

Police said the FIR will be registered by Sunday and the police have identified the tourist guide who was named as the prime accused in the complaint. “The prime suspect is a resident of Delhi but he is presently out of Delhi,” the officer added.

Her account marks the second such occasion a foreign woman has been raped while visiting India in recent years.

Last year, an Indian court handed out life sentences to five men who were convicted of gang-raping a Danish woman near a Delhi railway station. The event served as bad PR for the capital city, which is already regarded as one of the country’s most unsafe territories for women.

Police have asked a Delhi-based lawyer, who is assisting the survivor in the case, to assist them in contacting the victim.

“We will approach the US embassy to assist us in contacting her. We will record her statement before a magistrate if she agrees to come to Delhi. If she is unable to visit us, her statement can be recorded through video conferencing as well,” an officer said.

On Friday, police checked the guest records of the hotel in Connaught Place and confirmed her stay lasted four days.

The hotel staff also said she did not raise the issue with them.

Another team has been tasked to track down the guide and bring him to Delhi for questioning.