A Spanish travel blogger has alleged she was gang raped, and her partner was attacked while camping in India, sparking outrage and the arrests of three male suspects in a case that highlights the country's decades-long struggle to curb sexual violence against women.
The woman, who has Brazilian-Spanish dual nationality, posted the incident on her Instagram account, where the couple has a large fan base while documenting their motorcycle trip across Asia.
Tourist Couple Assaulted in India
Police in India's eastern state of Jharkhand, where the alleged incident occurred, reported that three men had been taken into custody and were looking for four others.
Pitamber Singh Kherwar, superintendent of police in the state's Dumka district, told reporters on Sunday that the couple appeared to have been beaten up when they were discovered by a roadside late on Friday.
He said that since the victims were speaking in Spanish and English, their police officers could not properly understand what they were saying. However, he claimed they looked like they were injured.
According to Kherwar, the couple, whose identities were not disclosed, were brought to a neighboring hospital, and the doctors said the woman had been raped. The three suspects were arrested on Sunday, adding that the investigators had identified the four other men and would be arrested "very soon."
Furthermore, he noted that their priority is to get them maximum punishment so that it will never happen again. Kherwar added that the couple will obtain compensation of up to $12,000.
On Saturday, the Indian National Commission for Women said on X, formerly Twitter, that it had asked the police to charge the suspects with gang rape, a crime that carries a minimum 20-year prison sentence.
"Something has happened to us that we would not wish on anyone," the woman, who appeared with bruises on her face, said through tears in a video posted on her Instagram page, which has almost half a million followers.
A video with an accompanying caption in English that is no longer available said that seven men had raped her, and they had beaten and robbed them.
The couple said in a different video posted on Sunday to their joint Instagram page with over 250,000 followers that the police are doing their best to catch the suspects, and they already know who they are.
They continued, "We ask that justice be done, not only for us but also for all the other women and girls who have gone through this."
In an interview with the Spanish TV channel Antena 3, the woman said that they raped her and took turns while some watched, and they stayed like that for about two hours as they had decided to camp in the town since they found no hotels to stay at overnight.
NBC News is not naming the couple due to laws in India prohibiting the disclosure of the identities of victims of sexual assault. The Brazilian Embassy in New Delhi told NBC News that the woman was traveling by motorcycle with her Spanish partner and that it had expressed its "strong repudiation of the barbaric crime against the couple." The statement also said that the Indian emergency services looked after the couple.
According to NBC News, the Spanish foreign ministry's New Delhi consulate called the couple to provide any consular support.
Increasing Sexual Violence Against Women in India
According to a report by the National Crime Records Bureau, an average of 86 rape cases were reported every day in the country in 2022. India has historically struggled to address male violence against women despite having strict laws.
However, many women still choose not to report sexual assault to the police, particularly in rural regions where a stigma persists that such a disclosure may affect a family's social standing.
In 2013, a year after a young man was fatally gang raped in New Delhi, the authorities doubled the prison term for rapists to 20 years, criminalized acts such as stalking and voyeurism, and reduced the age at which a person can be tried as an adult from 18 to 16.
Furthermore, if the victim is older than 18, marital rape is still not illegal in India under existing legislation.
