Indian police on Sunday detained four men and continued searching for the remaining three. attacked A Spanish tourist couple beat them and gang-raped the woman.
The couple gave their names as “Vincente” and “Fernanda” in an interview with Spanish media on Saturday, the day after the attack. The two have an Instagram account with around 200,000 followers, where they post videos of their world travels.
The couple said they were on a motorbike tour in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand when they were attacked. They set up camp for the night about a mile from the main road when a group of seven men approached, broke into their tent and brutally assaulted them.
“They beat us. They put a knife to my neck and said they were going to kill me,” said a man called Vincente. Said in a post on the couple’s Instagram account after the attack.
“Something happened to us that I would never wish on anyone. Seven men raped me. They beat us, robbed us, but what they wanted was me. We are in the hospital with the police. It happened tonight here in India,” Fernanda said tearfully.
“They raped me. They kept me there for about two hours, taking turns with several people watching,” she said. Said In an interview in Spanish.
Bruises were visible on both tourists’ faces in videos and subsequent television interviews.the man Said In a subsequent Instagram post, he said the attacker hit him in the head with a motorcycle helmet.
“My mouth is broken but my partner is worse than me. They hit me with a helmet a few times and hit me with a rock on the head. Thankfully she had a jacket on so , the hitting stopped a little bit,” he said.
Jharkhand police said they found the couple on the roadside with visibly serious injuries around 11pm on Friday night. A medical examination confirmed that the woman had been sexually assaulted. Police appeared to quickly figure out who the assailant was, and the first suspect arrested provided information about the other suspects.
The woman was later identified as a 28-year-old with dual Brazilian and Spanish citizenship. The foreign ministries of Brazil and Spain said on Sunday that they had contacted Indian authorities and contacted the victims.
“We must unite in our determination to end violence against women everywhere in the world,” the Spanish embassy declared on social media.
Brazilian Embassy issued “We strongly deny the barbaric crime against the couple” and assured them that “Indian emergency services will take care of them”.
The victim woman Said The couple deleted their Instagram posts about the attack at the request of the Jharkhand police, who said the video “may jeopardize the investigation.”
“My face looks like this, but that’s not what hurts me the most. I thought we were going to die. Thank God we’re alive,” she said. said.
The attack sparked outrage in Spain, Brazil and India, with social media users calling it “shocking” and a “nightmare”.
“Shameful! Indians treat foreigners like their own women. Our rotten society is a shame,” declared Bollywood actor Richa Chadha.
Comedian Vir Das said the attack was “disgraceful and we must show that it will not be tolerated”.
India’s National Commission for Women criticized police for apparently knowing the identity of the assailant early on and for being slow to respond to the incident.Indian Girlfriend WION News report They are calling for the local police chief to be suspended.
“Neither Adivasis nor Dalits are safe in this state,” lamented Nishikant Dubey, a lawmaker from the ruling BJP. “Now it has become an international issue as it has come to light that a Spanish woman came to India with her husband and was gang raped.”
