Indian guide accused of raping Japanese tourist surrenders to police

Officer says the man has been formally arrested, and under police interrogation

NEW DELHI: An Indian tour guide accused of drugging and raping a Japanese woman this week in the northern city of Jaipur turned himself in to police on Friday, an officer said.

The man, identified by officers as Ajit Singh Chaudhary, 23, surrendered at a police station on the city's outskirts five days after allegedly attacking the 20-year-old tourist.

"We have formally arrested him after he arrived at the police station. He confessed to the crime and we are investigating further," Rajender Singh, the officer in charge of Dudu station, told AFP.

"We have been pursuing him since he fled," he added.

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.

Singh said the man had been working as an unauthorised guide for the last few years after dropping out of college where he had been pursuing a diploma in tourism studies.

The woman told police that a man met her outside her Jaipur hotel on Sunday, offering to show her around the historic city on his motorbike.

He later allegedly gave her food laced with drugs before raping her in a secluded area of the city.

Police had announced a 100,000-Indian rupee ($1,600) reward for information about the attack, and six men were arrested on Tuesday for helping him to evade arrest.

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

Last month, six men from the eastern city of Kolkata were charged with kidnapping and gang-raping a 22-year-old Japanese tourist whom they had allegedly held hostage for a month.