People in New Delhi protesting against the gang rape. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
The woman was on a cycling trip with her husband in impoverished Madhya Pradesh state, when seven to eight men attacked the couple on Friday night, sexually assaulting the woman and robbing the pair, police said.
The attackers "tied up the man and raped the woman in his presence", local police official SM Afzal told AFP, adding that they stole INR10,000 and a mobile phone from the woman.
The attack comes just months after thousands took to the streets to protest against India's treatment of women following the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in December.
The couple were on their way to the tourist destination of Agra, home to the iconic Taj Mahal monument, in northern India when they stopped to camp for the night in a village.
Indian media reports said the men were wielding sticks when they attacked the couple.
After the attack, the rape victim, aged about 40, was admitted to hospital in Gwalior city, 342 kilometres from state capital Bhopal, local police official MS Dhodee said.
The victim was conscious on Saturday and speaking to authorities, police said. No other details of her condition were known.
She told police that the couple were both Swiss, police said, but they added they had not yet seen their passports to confirm their nationality.
"The victims, who belong to Switzerland, put up a tent to stay overnight" when the attack occurred, Afzal said.
The other police official, Dhodee, told AFP that police were still investigating the case but added that "a rape case has been registered against seven unidentified people".
A spokesman for the Swiss embassy in New Delhi could not be reached for comment.
In 2003 a 36-year-old female Swiss diplomat was abducted in the car park of a popular New Delhi auditorium, driven away by two men and raped. She was freed later nearby. No one has been convicted for that attack.
Concern remains high in India over the safety and status of women and girls in the country of 1.2 billion.
Rape is one aspect of a wide range of violence, including domestic assaults, against women in India that claims many thousands of lives each year, according to rights workers.
The Congress-led government has been under heavy pressure to strengthen legal protection for India's women following the December attack on the student who died from internal injuries after being savagely assaulted by six men.
Last Monday, Ram Singh, one of six accused on trial over the December assault was found hanged in his high-security jail cell in New Delhi. Police suspect he hanged himself, but his family says he was murdered.
Under a new bill approved by India's cabinet earlier in the week, rapists face a minimum 20-year jail term and the death penalty if the victim dies from her injuries or is left in a persistent vegetative state.
COMMENTS (43)
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@Maureen Lyttle:
Please do not repeat horror stories; you are describing the hindu culture whic simply tells us the tolerence of the Hindu women. Mahatma Gandhi, the great leader of non-violence did not spare any woman in his own family; They have no restrictions from their faith or traditions so far as morals or ethics are concerned. The rape feature of sexism with force is a new development and is a security risk for the victim, in my view and. Indian political leaders have the responsibility to put an end to it by some means..
Rex Minor .
Very sad. I pity all the women living in India, the country of frustrated youths.
@Muhammed Usama Aziz - "Now please dont shout here any more. Put your own house in order before spitting venom against Pakistan. Your hatred to Pakistan would take you nowwhere!!"
Agreed... I don't see the point for shouting about any incident in India on a Pakistani website.. We typically shout (and should shout) wherever we see injustice, crutely, prejudice... We shout here because Pakistan has more of it - mostly Govt. sanctioned... As for this rape case, we're already shouting on top of our voice here in India...on Indian websites...
@indian:
Very simple; as the self acclaimed leader of the western democracies, he visited the largest democracy in the East. The newly elected President of China shall make his visit visit to Russia, the leader of communism in the West. The swiss couple were bicycle hiking as some solos from Germany do as well from the Himalayas to hidukush, Pamir to Russia and return. The swiss couple were not aware of the hindu mythology about the earth currently in Kali Yuga.
Rex Minor
@Andy:
A simple answer, when you kiff, nothing disturbs you and even improves your creativity neurons. Steve Jab went to India.
Rex Minor .
RAPE IN INDIA (5): 3 year-old tyke raped at RajivNagar in Balangir district, Mumbai on January 15. She was lured with chocolates to a secluded spot where she was barbarically raped. The rapist then deposited her back on the road near her house. Parents saw her bleeding private parts and rushed her to hospital. The little one was able to utter the name of the accused, who was her father’s friend. Physically challenged girl who was deaf and mute raped at Somgarh village in Betul on December 17, 2012 while alone in the house. Raju Salama received 10 years’ imprisonment on February 16. 7-year old girl was gang-raped by 3 minor boys, all of them below 10 years, in Gopiganj area. The gang-rape occurred when the little girl was returning from school. The incident came to light when the girl’s condition became serious a day after the attack and she was brought to hospital. 3-year old girl was kidnapped, gang- raped and penetrated with a blunt object causing severe internal injuries. She was taken by 23-year old Mohammed Jasim while sleeping next to her mother on a shop verandah in Mallapuram district of Kerala in early March. The next morning, the little girl was found near a school burning with fever and covered with ants, her clothes bloodied and soiled. She is in ICU fighting for her life. 19-year old school girl left a mall for home in Ghaziabad early evening on February 7. She got into a shared auto rickshaw. In it were the driver and 2 male 'passengers' who had stolen the auto for a 'joyride'. They gagged and gang-raped her for over 2 hours before dumping her on the road. During that horrendous ride, the auto passed 6 police checkpoints, unnoticed by police. It wasn't until midnight that she was able to get help. 13-year old girl from Kannur, Kerala reported being raped by her father, brother, and uncle for 2 years. According to the young girl, her old sister committed suicide to escape similar abuse.
@Razi: I have never claimed that Indian judiciary is the best. It has problems of large pendency and corruption at lower levels. Unlike Pakistan though it does successfully prosecute terrorists of all faiths. In any event, I am not the one that brought up the issue of terrorism - I was simply responding to @Next about terrorism related perceptions.
@gp65:
As a woman yourelf you should sympatise with a woman, though swiss! stop relatavising and quoting Parachinar and tumbakto and Arizona or Mexico. From Sati to Rape is not a good record. Look at what the Indian married woman with two children said, " My husband and my two little boys are putting pressure on me. I cannot take it any more this Bharat." What i this Bharat which is different from India? We in Europe wer expecting mr Modi to become the next PM to make changes which the congress have not! The rape of oreigner in BJP land is not a good news for the G8 who are asking Dr Singh to improve the status of women in the land.
Rex MinorI
Indians and Pakistanis are worse than animals. Both never let go any chance to make fun of each other even in tragic incidents like these. Instead of learning from each other's mistakes or achievements (if any ) we laugh at them . I was reading comments about HDI report , what difference does it makes if India is 136 or Pakistan is 146, the fact is both are among the third rated countries.Both are countries of lazy people who do nothing but take false historical sense of pride in being offspring of Arabs, Turks and Aryans.Go on fight and fight more over useless matters of religion and race while your children and women suffers.Real salvation will only be achieved when people of both countries will discuss science, education, literature and economics
@ All the people junmping in their seats upon the comment by Confused: Get a life and try to understand what he / she meant.
@Confused: lol ..... it was a good one
The Indians will leave no chance to show their superiority to others especially Pakistan even when the matter is that if rape. This complex that they are suffering from really needs to be taken head on.
Gp65 As usual, your prejudiced assertion that "your army, politicians and judiciary has shown duplicity in dealing with terrorists" should be enough for any reasonable person to see how you play these games of one up-manship. What YOUR army has done in Kashmir and the duplicity YOUR judiciary has shown in dealing with terrorism against minorities in India is something to think about before lecturing others. And the usual Indian-judiciary-is-the-best-in-the-world claptrap is not going to work.
@Muhammed Usama Aziz: Yes we need to shout because a rape of one women in India becomes a top news for Pakistani newspaper. In our country rape are reported in your country rape and forced marriages of minority community girls and not even reported. Even if one or two are reported police blame the victim for blasphemy. At least Pakistani have to right to comment on these issues. You can't hide your sin under these incidents.More women are getting raped in India because they have started moving freely unlike in Pakistan.
@Confused: So they should visit Pakistan to get 100 lashes for wearing shorts and minis in public. Come to India and see how Indian women freely move around wearing cloths of their choice.Your name rightly describe your mental state
@Next: I do understand your pain. I think most reasonable people around the world do NOT think that all Pakistanis are terrorists or that even most are terrorist. But just as you resent US policy on drones similarly people around the world resent the deliberate safe havens provided to terrorists from around the world that attack other countries. Your army, your politicians and your judges have repeatedly shown duplicity in dealing with terrorists. Once upon a time India alone complained about this but now China, IRan, Afghanistan, UK and NATO also have the same complaint. Time to introspect on that issue instead of simply blaming international media.
As far as Indians are concerned, it is Indian media that made the Delhi gang rape a big issue and rightly so. Problems have to be acknowledged before they can be solved. If the process of acknowledging problems also leads to temporary negative publicity internationally, that price is well worth paying for achieving the final objective of solving the problem.I prefer the big noise Indian civil society and Indian media made on that case which forced our government to act compared to the silence in Pakistani media when a soldier was stoned to death by 300 people for talking to a girl in Parachinar a few days back.
@Rex Minor: "@Tilopa: Every 23 minutes a rape occurs in India of 1´2 billion. These are Indian Govt statistics. India should extend the women sterilisation program to men as well. Also they need to change the 1871 colonial police law as well for rapes."
Justice Sinha has already made recommendations and the 1871 law will be changed in India. But I would like to bring to your attention that not all changes are necessarily good. Pakistan did change the colonial laws. According to Pakistani laws, unless the woman can produce 4 male witnesses to the rape, she herself would be tried for zina. Does the change in law do anything to reduce rapes? No. But it sure drives down the reporting of rape.
Rapes are a horrendous crime whether against one's own citizens or foreigners but to introduce laws that embolden the rapist by virtually ensuring that cases are never reported, as Pakistan has done is worse still. It is for this exact same reason that rape statistics for India and Pakistan are not comparable. There undoubtedly may be some under reporting in India vis-avis say US due to honour related issues but at least in India the law does not actively encourage underreporting of rapes.
Also the statistic of 23 rapes per minutes which you continue to quote to imply that somehow Indian women are more unsafe than other countries deliberately ignores the population of India. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics . Please find the rapes per 100,000 which relates to women's safety.
Rapes cannot be eliminated. What needs to happen however is that its perpetrators need to be brought to justice and the shame needs to be attached to the perpetrators not victims and her family. India is on the right track to make this happen. Since reforming laws is so important to you, you need to worry about Waziristan from where you hail. Stoning a man to death because he talked to a girl is what happens there. Seems to me that the laws that allow that to happen are even more dated than the 1871 rape related in laws that you never leave a chance to speak about.
These guys must be told that raping people doesn't make them heroes nor does it end their miseries. And as I always profess the main reason is the alcohol. It is observed in almost all the cases of gang rape that the rapists are drunk. People should get rid of this mother of all evils in both India, Pakistan and all the countries of the world. A properly working mind would never act so stupidly.
India what the biggest democracy of the world where the women's honor,grace and dignity are not safe even foreign women and if I say these words "India has been the hub of the rapers" then this shall never be wrongful.First a medical student in the bus,then some other girls and now a Swiss tourist..... This is the real and true face of the biggest democracy of the world India......
It is sad the we Pakistani are gloating over what has happened to a woman in India, yet we don see what is happening in Pakistan.
We have similar cases in Pakistan as well, where due to modesty of the family, undue duress against victims by the influential, apathy of our law enforecement, weak judicial system, the law to have 4-witnesses, etc etc does not get reported.
So we do not know the extent as to what is happening here. Sad where ever violence is committed against woman, anywhere in the world.
@MKAIND: Bro., no hope there! these troll speak too soon and then find out eventually that they are no different but still dont learn.
@Confused: Agreed!
My heart goes out to the lady and her husband, no woman should undergo such a horrific violence, we all have mothers,sisters, wives, daughters and grand daughters. I will suggest to my Pakistani friends not to gloat because this problem of rape is prevalent all over the world. In Pakistan it happens too and some women can't come forward to report it to the police and remember there is this Hadood law, a gift from General Zia to the men of Pakistan.Let us all express our solidarity with the couple and all the women of the world.
India definitely has a RAPE PROBLEM--infants, toddlers, children and women are raped and gang-raped every day! This IS unusual and it is repugnant, evil, vile, and criminal! The Swiss couple did NOT deserve what happened to them. Although it is unfortunate that they were not well apprised beforehand of the problems inherent in travelling to India, they do not deserve condemnation, nor did they contribute in any way to the gang-rape! As long as you blame the victim, you perpetuate the crimes of rape against women and children. It is the RAPISTS who committed the crime, not the victim! If you cannot offer sympathy, try to hold back on your condemnation of the victim. It is most repugnant and revolting!
@indian: All recent rapes has content of alchol in it. It reminds me of bollywood of 80's where the villans would gather and rape women.
@Andy: Don't know about your country mate,Just British prime-minister landed with its largest ever business delegation to Woo,"India" as other P-4 nations of UN security council,India,having d 4 th biggest GDP in d world just after US,china & Japan & 3rd fastest economic growth rate in the world. Colonial legacy have a some obnoxious effect on many social & territorial issues(After all We have seen the largest migration ever in the history of world along with Pakistan),nevertheless Do remember we have to make policy for "125 crores" people(almost 20 % of total population of the world)(That too democratically in a federal structure,unlike china),not a easy task at all,take my word.So if u have great no of poor people on one hand,u have 122 billionaires(4th highest in world)on the other the,only the English speaking people in India is more then total population of Australian continent! Whether it's a rape or a terrorist attack,nothing to glorify these things as we all know these are criminal acts.The positives we take are more important,as citizen are making the government accountable to its cause,that is positive sign as its shows how the democracy is maturing. When an IMF chief & senior diplomat like Dominique strauss-kahn can attempt rape,How will u explain that?In many developing countries Rapes are confined to four walls due to "honor" issue,no FIR,no documentation of crime. "Women empowerment " requires an altogether different approach all over the world & India certainly have to be a major stakeholder along with different nations.
@Tilopa:
Every 23 minutes a rape occurs in India of 1´2 billion. These are Indian Govt statistics. India should extend the women sterilisation program to men as well. Also they need to change the 1871 colonial police law as well for rapes.
Rex Minor
@Tilopa:
Now you understand the pain of Pakistan - when news corps pick and choose all the worst events "only" and portray as if every women in Pakistan is oppressed, every bearded Pakistani is a terrorist, every soul killed in drone is a terrorist, every madrassah is a training camp etc.
This is how the opinion are made around the world about a particular group or nation.
Why are we so obsessed with raping. What a disease this country has been infected with!
Thought India has it's problem with women issues but i don't understand the point of publishing every other incident of rape and that also by a foreign newspaper. India is nation of 1.2 billion and that means mathematically the probability of criminals committing crime increase.
Also the emphasis on "Swedish". Does the publishers meant to convey that here a Swede is more important then a native women ? If no, then why specially publish a swede rape and not about each and every gang rape committed in India?
The poor woman may never recover from this horrific incident. May I now suggest a separate state for women in India.
@Andy: Rape happens everywhere in the world. People do not stop traveling for that reason. I do hope that the rapists are caught and brought to justice soon - not because the victim this time was a foreigner. But because all victims of rape deserve that. Separately, India does have many poor people as you point out. If that deters you from visiting India, don't visit. Others visit it for the many cultural heritage sites it offers. To each their own.
may the culprits brought to justice for this brutality.
Really sad that another woman became the victim of frustrated men in India. Though why anyone would want to visit that cesspool of poverty, rape and filth that is India is beyond me.
To all my fellow Pakistanis,lets stop scoring brownie points here.Rape commited anywhere is horrific,yes India has a rape problem and lets just wish sanity prevails.All sympathies to the infortunate couple,its heartening to see no one is actually feeling sorry for the couple itself and scoring points!
@farigh indian: Instead of criticising Pakistan put your house in order first!!!!!
So unfortunate for the poor lady...
@all Indian trolls Now please dont shout here any more. Put your own house in order before spitting venom against Pakistan. Your hatred to Pakistan would take you nowwhere!!
@confused : your name matches with ur ideology....why was barack obama in india???
All tourism needs to be stopped and every tourist needs to be warned about this crippling disease our frustrated youth has. This is immensely embarrassing for our country
@Confused: lol
kill them
Based on this incident and on the fact that a rape is committed in India after every 15 mins, a figure quoted by an Indian in one of the comments, would the Indians commenting here agree that all foreigners and women should leave India? After all, that's what they so gloatingly screamed in their comments about minorities in Pakistan on Yaqoob Bangash's piece on minorities following the burning of Christian homes.
Why would a Swiss tourist go to India?