Foreign Female Tourists Gang-Raped in India... Male Companion Thrown into River and Drowned

Two Women, Including Israeli Tourist, Victimized
Three Local Men Identified as Perpetrators... Two Arrested

In India, two women, including Israeli tourists, were gang-raped, and a man accompanying them was thrown into the water and drowned.

According to the British BBC and other media on the 10th (local time), the incident occurred on the night of the 6th near a lake in Hampi city, Karnataka state, southern India.

At the time, the Israeli female tourist and an Indian woman who was the owner of the house where she was staying in a homestay format were stargazing, and three male tourists?two Indians and one American?were also present at the scene.

A police official stated that three Indian men approached the group of tourists on motorcycles, then threw the three male tourists into a nearby canal and beat and sexually assaulted the two women.

Among the men thrown into the canal, two, including the American, survived, but the other Indian man was found drowned two days later on the morning of the 8th.

Citizens are protesting in anger over the rape and murder of a female resident doctor at a national hospital in Kolkata, India, last August. Photo by AP Yonhap News

The female victims are currently receiving treatment at a hospital. The police arrested two Indian men in their 20s who fled two days after the incident on the 8th and booked them on charges including sexual assault, while pursuing one other suspect who remains at large.

The homestay owner, who is a victim, said that before the crime, one of the perpetrators asked which way to go to buy gasoline, and another demanded 100 rupees (about 1,600 won).

The owner said the tourists had no money, but the perpetrators kept demanding money, so one male tourist, unable to bear it, gave them 20 rupees. However, even after receiving the money, the perpetrators continued to harass the tourists and eventually committed this crime.

Hampi, where the incident occurred, is a city designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 due to its many relics and temples of an ancient empire.

Weeks before this incident, a man who raped and murdered a female medical intern at a national hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata in August last year was sentenced to life imprisonment. The revelation of this case sparked outrage and protests across India, highlighting the reality that women are not safe even in hospitals.