Japanese tourist accuses Indian guide of rape

Police say the accused offered to drop the tourist at the hotel, but took her to desolate area and allegedly raped her

AFP: A Japanese woman has told Indian police she was raped by a tourist guide in the historic northern city of Jaipur, in the latest sex attack on a foreigner, an officer said Monday.

The 20-year-old told police the guide offered to show her around Jaipur on his motorbike on Sunday before attacking her in an isolated part of the city in the evening, the officer said.

"We have received a complaint from a Japanese tourist alleging rape by a local man yesterday (Sunday)," Dharam Chand Jain, police inspector general for Jaipur district, told AFP.

"The accused offered to drop her at the hotel in the evening but took her to a desolate area... and allegedly raped her," he said.

"The tourist alleged that she was offered some food which might have been laced with drugs."

The case is the latest in a string of high-profile sex attacks that have highlighted high levels of violence against women in the world's second-most-populous country.

Six men from the eastern city of Kolkata were charged last month with kidnapping and gang-raping a 22-year-old Japanese tourist.

The woman was allegedly held hostage for a month after travelling to the Buddhist shrine of Bodh Gaya in neighbouring Bihar state.

India has faced intense scrutiny over its efforts to curb violence against women following the fatal gang rape of a medical student in New Delhi in December 2012, which sparked a global outcry.

Sex attacks against women from Western countries have received major media coverage in India but similar attacks on local women have drawn only a fraction of the attention.