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Police say they have arrested two men over the alleged rape and molestation of a 36-year-old British tourist at a hotel in the Indian capital Delhi.
The woman was reportedly assaulted at a hotel in Delhi’s Mahipalpur area, 15km south of the Indian parliament.
One of the suspects, identified as Kailash, had befriended the London resident on Instagram, the police said. He was arrested on charges of rape, while a hotel staff member named Wasim was held on charges of molestation.
“This is not a gang-rape. These are two separate incidents of sexual abuse. The suspects are not related to each other,” a South West Delhi police officer told The Independent.
The woman arrived in Delhi from the UK to meet the suspect after becoming friends with him on social media, police said.
The woman was on holiday to Maharashtra and Goa when she asked Kailash to join her, news outlet NDTV reported. However, the suspect allegedly said he could not travel, which prompted the British national to visit Delhi this week.
The woman checked in to the hotel on Tuesday, where Kailash, a resident of Delhi, allegedly visited and subsequently assaulted her.
The woman reportedly alleged that hotel staff inappropriately touched her while she was in the lift.
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told The Independent: “We are supporting a British woman in India and are in touch with the local authorities.”
The British national was allegedly assaulted less than a week after a 27-year-old Israeli tourist and her Indian homestay operator were gang-raped near a Unesco World Heritage Site in Karnataka. A fellow Indian male traveller was killed, while two others, including an American man, survived.
The two women, who were stargazing with three male tourists near Sanapur lake in Hampi, Karnataka, were attacked by three assailants last Thursday. The incident prompted foreign and local tourists to leave the state or cancel their travels to India.
Reports of horrific sexual assaults on women have become familiar in India, where police recorded 31,516 rape cases in 2022, a 20 per cent increase from 2021, according to the latest figures available from the National Crime Records Bureau. The real figure is believed to be far higher due to the stigma surrounding sexual violence.
The gang-rape of a tourist from Spain in the eastern state of Jharkhand last year sparked anger and a discussion on safety in a country with rising crimes against women.
The 28-year-old woman and her husband were assaulted in the Dumka district of Jharkhand where they had set up their tent for the evening. The couple, who manage an Instagram page chronicling their motorbike travels across South Asia, posted a video recounting their ordeal.
In February this year, a 31-year-old man was jailed for life over the rape and murder of a 28-year-old Irish tourist in Goa.
