NEW DELHI: According to reports on Monday, four more suspects are being sought by police in connection with the gang rape of a Spanish tourist who was traveling with her husband on a motorcycle. Three Indian males have since appeared in court.
The couple was camping in the Dumka area of Jharkhand state when they were attacked on Friday night in eastern India. Seven individuals in all are charged with carrying out the vicious attack.
“A team has been assembled to pursue the remaining suspects,” stated Pitamber Singh Kherwar, a senior police officer in the area. Three defendants were observed on Sunday being led into court by police officers wearing bags around their heads and having ropes fastened around their waists. Later, the three were placed on custody remand. The Spanish woman was in court with her husband as well.
According to Kherwar, “We have to ensure strict punishment,” the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said on Monday. According to Kherwar, while one team was looking for other suspects, a special squad of forensic officers had been assembled to search the attack area.
According to Kherwar in the PTI report, “They are raiding places constantly.” “We’ll apprehend the remaining defendants shortly.” The National Crime Records Bureau estimated that in India in 2022, there were around ninety rapes reported every day on average. But a lot of them remain unreported because of the stigma that surrounds victims and people’s mistrust in police investigations.
Convictions are still uncommon because of the lengthy case backlog in India’s congested criminal court system. In 2012, news throughout the world was dominated by the infamous gang rape and killing of an Indian student.
In December of that year, Jyoti Singh, a 23-year-old student of physiotherapy, was attacked, sexually molested, and left for dead on a bus in New Delhi by five men and a teenager.
After weeks of protests and an international emphasis on India’s high rates of sexual violence, the horrifying crime led to a reform in the law that instituted the death penalty for rape.
