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Indian
police officials escort suspects in the alleged gang-rape and extortion of a
Japanese tourist held as a sex slave, as they are brought to the Bankshall
court in Kolkata on January 3, 2015 (AFP Photo / STR)
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AFP reports the
22-year-old's ordeal began in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal state, where she
was befriended by three local men shortly after arriving on November 20, one of
the city's top police officers told AFP.
The
men, one of whom spoke Japanese, first managed to persuade her to withdraw
around US$1,200 dollars in cash before travelling with her to the holy shrine of
Bodh Gaya in the neighbouring state of Bihar.
There
she was then handed over to two brothers who allegedly locked her in a secluded
underground room and repeatedly raped her for nearly a month.
The
case is the latest in a string of high-profile sex attacks that have
highlighted the frightening levels of violence against women in the world's
second most populous country.
The
two brothers, who were working as tourist guides, were arrested on Friday and
taken to Kolkata where they appeared in court late Saturday. A magistrate
ordered that they be remanded in custody until January 9 for an identification
parade.
Kolkata
joint police commissioner Pallab Kanti Ghosh said the other three men were
being held on suspicion of extorting money from the victim and then handing her
over to the alleged rapists.
"We
have arrested three people who befriended the victim in Kolkata. They have been
charged with common conspiracy and intention to kidnap and rape," the
commissioner said.
"The
men managed to extort 76,000 rupees (US$1,200) from her and convinced her to
travel to Bodh Gaya with them in their car."
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Foreigners under attack -
The
woman managed to escape from Gaya and reached the Hindu holy city of Varanasi,
where she met some Japanese tourists who helped her contact the consulate in
Kolkata.
Although
it was not immediately clear when her ordeal ended, police said she filed the
police report in the last week of December.
"(When)
we came to know of the incident... we assisted her in registering the complaint
with the police," Japan's consul-general in Kolkata, Kazumi Endo, told
AFP.
Tourism
Minister Mahesh Sharma conceded that the incident would dent India's image
further.
"We
are only getting 69 lakh (6.9 million) tourists in a year so that's a matter of
concern for us. (We have) to take care of the security of travellers," he
told CNN-IBN news network.
Samina
Khatoon, sister of the men arrested in Gaya, denied the charge of gang rape and
demanded a thorough probe into the incident.
"We
also want a medical examination of the victim. It will prove that my brothers
are innocent," she told AFP by phone.
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, including the US and Britain,
have received major media coverage and tourism bosses are wary of their
negative impact.
In
January 2014 a 51-year-old Danish tourist was robbed and gang-raped at
knifepoint in Delhi in a case that grabbed national and international
headlines.
In
2013 a Swiss cyclist holidaying in the central state of Madhya Pradesh was
robbed and raped by five men, all of whom were later jailed for life.
However,
crimes against women from Asian countries have received noticeably less
attention. This latest case was only a small news item and was largely ignored
by the rolling news networks.
The attack echoes that of a 25-year-old Japanese
woman who was gang-raped in 2010 while she was on her way to the railway
station in Gaya.
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