A woman from Britain traveled to India to meet a man she had connected with online. Unfortunately, she was reportedly raped by him at a hotel in Delhi. To make matters worse, she was then allegedly molested by another man in the building’s elevator, according to the authorities.
This 36-year-old tourist had chosen to stay in the Mahipalpur area of the Indian capital after striking up a friendship with a man she knew only as Kailash on Instagram.
The London-based woman had been on holiday to Maharashtra and Goa when she asked the man to join her, Indian media reports.
The suspect said he could not travel, so she went to where he lived in Delhi to meet him, checking into a hotel on Tuesday.
When Kailash visited her at the hotel, things took a dark turn as the woman discovered that he was making inappropriate advances towards her, leading to a confrontation between them.
The victim alleged that she was brutally attacked and raped by the accused.
She escaped the room to go to the hotel reception to get help, at which point another man, under the pretext of helping her, allegedly molested her in the hotel lift.
Both men have been arrested on rape and molestation charges, according to Indian police, who have launched an investigation into the horrific events.
File image shows hotels in the Mahipalpur area of New Delhi, where the British woman was staying when she was allegedly attacked
‘A man was arrested on charges of rape with a British woman in a Mahipalpur hotel in Delhi. His accomplice was arrested on charges of molestation,’ Delhi Police said in a statement.
‘The woman who was friends with the [first] man through social media had come to Delhi from the UK to meet him.’
In a statement to the Independent, a South West Delhi police officer clarified: ‘This is not a gang-rape. These are two separate incidents of sexual abuse. The suspects are not related to each other.’
Local authorities have informed the British High Commission and have been assisting the British national, according to reports.
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: ‘We are supporting a British woman in India and are in touch with the local authorities.’
It comes less than a week after a 27-year-old Israeli tourist and her Indian homestay operator were gang-raped during a stargazing trip in Karnataka.
The two women had been visiting Sanapur Lake, close to the Unesco World Heritage Site, with three male tourists when they were attacked by three assailants last Thursday.
The female tourists were raped while an Indian man in their group was killed in the horrific attack, with two other tourists, including an American man, escaping with their lives.
A police officer speaks on his mobile phone at the scene as they search for the male travelers who were pushed into the canal by three men accused of gang-raping two women
Reports of sexual attacks on women have become increasingly common in India, where police recorded 31,516 rape cases in 2022, a 20 per cent increase from the previous year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
It is thought the true figure may be higher still due to the stigma surrounding sexual violence.
Instances of rape and sexual violence have been under scrutiny since the gang-rape and killing of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus in 2012.
The attack sparked mass protests and prompted legislators to create fast-track courts for rape cases, and harsher penalties.
The rape law was amended in 2013 to criminalise stalking and voyeurism, and to lower the age at which a person can be tried as an adult from 18 to 16.
In 2018, the government approved the use of the death penalty for people convicted of raping children under the age of 12.
High-profile cases involving foreign visitors have drawn international attention to the issue.
Last year, in a video that was later deleted, a Spanish tourist said his wife was raped in northern India, while an Indian-American woman said she was raped at a hotel in New Delhi. In 2022, a British tourist was raped in front of her partner in Goa.
