A Polish woman was drugged and raped as she traveled to the Indian capital with her two-year-daughter, police said Sunday, the latest in a string of sexual attacks on women in the country.
The woman, 33, and her daughter were traveling in a taxi from the city of Mathura where they live to New Delhi last Thursday when she was allegedly raped by the driver.
The driver drugged the woman at some point during the 150-kilometer journey and she was attacked after she passed out, Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP.
The woman woke up on a bench outside a railway station in New Delhi with her toddler crying by her side, the officer said, adding that details of the attack were still unknown.
"It is still a bit unclear, but prima facie, it seems she sat (in the taxi) voluntarily. But yes, thereafter, in the car he drugged her using some spray... medical report has confirmed rape," he said.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, reported the incident to police who are searching for the driver, Bhagat said.
The woman, a devotee of the Hindu god Krishna, had been living in Mathura -- believed to be the birthplace of Krishna -- in Uttar Pradesh state for the past three years and worked in the cloth export business, he said.
She and her daughter had been waiting on a busy road in Mathura for a taxi to take them to the capital when the driver approached.
The January 2 incident comes barely a week after India marked the first anniversary of the death of a student who was gang-raped on a New Delhi bus in an attack that sent shockwaves across the nation.
The gang-rape triggered massive protests over the levels of violence against women, but in the last 12 months there have been several more cases of local and foreign woman being attacked.
A judge last month sentenced three Nepalese men to 20 years in jail for the gang-rape of a US tourist in June in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.
Six men were sentenced to life in prison in July last year for the gang-rape and robbery of a 39-year-old Swiss woman cyclist who had been holidaying in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
© (c) 2014 AFP
29 Comments
Login to comment
nath
they should all be hanged
kickboard
Not only is the rape despicable, but to leave a 2 year old next to a drugged and passed out mother is unbelievable. The only good thing is that nothing happened to the daughter. Seriously though, another day, another rape in India. I hope we don't become numb to this kind of news.
LunarTuner
they should be raped and then hanged
avigator
Another reason to stay away from India and from their Gods.
Ah_so
India is one of those places where it is dangerous to be a Western woman travelling on her own (although in this case she was with a child). This is apparently a sign that you are more available. I have a suspicion that the availability of Western porn is a contributor to this, giving the impression that Westerners will do anything to anyone. After Basic Instinct was released 20+ years ago, it made life difficult for women, especially blondes, travelling around India.
karlrb
This has nothing to do with their Gods.
funny car
1/6 of the world lives in India. Finding rape stories from there is going to be simple. Calling it a string is going to be simple. Failing to print rape stories from elsewhere is going to be simple. Simple people are going to believe that India really is hell on Earth. This yellow journalism is not quite as sick as any of these rape stories, but sick nonetheless.
smithinjapan
"The January 2 incident comes barely a week after India marked the first anniversary of the death of a student who was gang-raped on a New Delhi bus in an attack that sent shockwaves across the nation."
Yeah, and barely a day after a woman was twice gang-raped and burned to death because she went to the police. Find the man and lock him up for life. Given Indian law though it likely won't be pursued seriously -- so hopefully the international attention that it was a Polish woman will help expedite common sense.
Carolee Thumma
funny car: The reason that rape is printed about India a lot now isn't about how often it happens, it's because up until 2013 most rapes were ignored in India. It was only after journalist and others started screaming out to the world that India didn't condemn rape. You got raped you got punished. The reason they publish the stories is to make the country aware that they were punishing the victim and not the criminal.
bec
LFRAgain
India's religious beliefs have little to do with this. But it does beg the question, why do so many men in India seem to believe rape is acceptable behavior? And why do those who don't not react with greater anger towards those who do? Indian society desperately needs to engage in some deep soul-searching to address this culturally ingrained abomination.
WilliB
Indian society was dangerous for women before "Basic Instinct" and similar Hollywood stuff came along, although that surely contributed to the view of Western women as easy marks. But traditions such as bride burning predate Hollywood by hundreds of years. For an even worse treatment of women though, you can look at neighbouring Pakistan.
kaimycahl
Maybe the Polish government should demand an apology and the people of Poland storm the India Embassy in Poland as they did when the indian women who was a diplomat got caught stealing in the US and because she was a diplomat she wanted diplomatic immunity and the people in India went cow crazy. The people of india dont care about human beings they are very barbaric and ruthless too many people in one country that produces nothing but babies something is wrong
nath
What I hate is the obvious fact that 95% (99%?) of this is not reported because the victims are not foreigners, or promising medical students, etc. In a country with a caste system like India, would reporting for the lower castes girl rapes be done as properly for higher caste girls? I'd love to hear from someone who knows.
funny car
Interesting position Carolee Thumma, but that is not remotely the way the article is portraying this, is it?
oldman_13
I agree with Peter, only if it involves foreigners does the media get involved.
smithinjapan
oldman: "I agree with Peter, only if it involves foreigners does the media get involved."
Then I guess you missed the article three days ago about the Indian woman being gang-raped twice and burned to death, and missed last year's huge international coverage of the woman taken off the bus and gang-raped, both of whom eventually died. I agree with Peter that there is probably a whole lot that goes unreported due to the caste system and the throwback government and corrupt police, but if you think it's only foreigners getting raped that makes the headlines you're naive.
funny car
I think we can all agree that its only extreme cases that further sensationalism that get reported at first. After that, its cases that further the sensationalism sometimes even they are not entirely sensational themselves. This is a yellow journalism trademark.
Chantella Jackson
@ Ah_so: This isn't an attack on you. But neither female nor male rape victims can do anything to make them more of a target. The rapist does that ALL on their own. They will attack a tree if they can't find a human or animal to harm.
falseflagsteve
@Chantella
Not true i'm afraid, though saying this is un PC. People can place themselves in danger by things like getting drunk or getting out of their mind on drugs. This is the same for males or females. Does it make rape or any attack ok? No, of course not. But to say these things would happen anyway is ignorance. If a child walked around a high crime area in the west with a large amount money for all to see and it was stolen would that be the same as your point? Of course not, as the PC feminist police have not broadcast about that.
These reported attacks are vile and repulsive and are the type that would be hard to prevent but let's not be cautious and use safety in our lives. Prevention is not a dirty word.
nath
Women can be proactive by considering the clothes they wear. Until the rape has happened, there has been no crime, only the potential for crime to happen. In such a case, people are best off doing what they can to prevent being put into a situation where they could be the victim of a crime. For example, someone probably shouldn't walk through the streets of Johannesburg counting wads of $100 bills.
After the crime has happened, the fault is entirely in the perpetrator. The clothes a woman is wearing are absolutely no excuse for a rape, and cannot be used as any kind of justification. The perpetrator has a responsibility to resist any urges they may have, as they are wrong, immoral, and not acceptable.
cleo
The other day I was eating in an Indian restaurant that I used to frequent but hadn't been to for some time. I noticed there had been a change in the singy-dancy video playing on a giant screen on one wall. It used to be demure ladies in saris singing to and dancing with handsome gentlemen, all very vanilla and nice; but the content had changed quite markedly to very scantily-dressed girls (a good number of them not looking very Indian) gyrating suggestively and twerking outrageously while not-so-handome men either looked on with smirks on their faces or joined in, in some cases eventually carrying a girl off-screen. Put me right off my naan.
I don't know when this change occurred, or whether it is restricted to this one restaurant (used to be a very nice restaurant, one of my favourites) or reflects trends in India as a whole - anyone have any idea? The message was definitely women are sexual objects. I would not like to raise a daughter in a society where that kind of 'entertainment' was the norm.
nath
Seeing as kissing wasn't even allowed in Bollywood movies until recently (and can still cause major controversy), I don't think you should worry too much about sexuality in Indian cinema. The sexual issues in the country are not coming from their movies.
cleo
It wasn't cinema, it was the music videos they play in the restaurant. Like I said (or tried to say, before we got deleted) this was way different from the normal harmless singalong Bollywood dance routine stuff. It made Miley Cyrus look like a shrinking violet auditioning to enter a nunnery. It was the sudden difference that struck me. It didn't use to be like that.
Moderator
Back on topic please.
Chantella Jackson
@falseflagsteve: That is blaming the victim. A rapist will rape regardless. It does not matter where you are or what you were doing. The victim has NOTHING to do with what the rapist does. I am a rape victim. I have researched this, to say that a victim can cause his or her own rape is not correct.
falseflagsteve
@Chantelle
Sadly that is false as with any other crime. That does not mean any blame is attributed to the victim, however measure can be taken to avoid situations such as known dangerous areas, indulging in behaviour like getting so drunk as to black out when at night clubs etc. There are many types of rapist, not just ones who will wait for a victim in bushes or a dark alley.There are rapes that happen when a women loses here faculties due to drugs or drink and is then abused. This could have been avoided if the woman had not lost her faculties. Does that mean she is at all to blame? Of course not, but she would not have been a victim if she had not got into that state.
There is never an excuse to rape but like robbery, burglary etc the chances of it happening to you (male or female) can be reduced.
Chantella Jackson
I see what you mean. But again, saying that she wouldn't have been raped had her actions been different is saying she is kinda at fault. The rapists would have found someone else if not her, and regardless of what she did or didn't do, if they wanted her they would have taken her REGARDLESS. She'd feel like crap if you were to go up to her and say "well if you didn't do that then it wouldn't have happened." The rapists CHOSE all on their own to rape her, NOTHING forced or made them do it. If I see an open purse, I don't steal the money and then say "Well they shouldn't have left it open". Just because you don't use the word "blame" doesn't mean it's not blaming.
falseflagsteve
@smithinjapan
There is no excuse for rape which i have said repeatedly and no blame is attached to a victim of any crime..
You just said i defended rapists, "YOU ARE A LIAR" and stop lying about my posts.. I never said the whole blame is not with the rapist. Dont you't talk BS about me troll!
maglev101
But China has a higher population, yet foreign female tourists/expats generally felt safer there than in India.