Six men accused of raping a Swiss tourist who was cycling with her husband in central India have been produced in court and charged with gang rape.
The attack occurred Friday night as the Swiss couple camped in a forest in Datia district. Police said the men attacked the husband, tying him to a tree before raping his wife.
The couple told police that the woman had been raped by seven or eight men, but that it was dark and they could not be sure of the exact number. The 39-year-old woman was treated Saturday at a local hospital and released later the same day, according to police.
The suspects appeared in the magistrate's court in Madhya Pradesh state with their faces covered with black cloth, police superintendent Chandra Shekhar Solanki said.
It was not clear how they pleaded in court, but during their arrest Sunday they confessed to the crime, police said. The men, who are poor farmers from nearby villages, also face additional charges of robbing the Swiss couple.
The attack came three months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus, an attack that spurred outrage across India.
After last December's bus attack, the government passed a law increasing prison terms for rape from the existing seven to 10 years to a maximum of 20 years. The law provides for the death penalty in cases of rape that result in death or leave the victim in a coma. It has also made voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks and the trafficking of women punishable under criminal law.
Source: CBC, March 18, 2013
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