Five Men booked in gang-rape of American Woman

Delhi Police has booked five men, including a tour guide, in connection with the alleged gang rape of an American woman at a five-star hotel in Connaught Place. The travel guide is a resident of south Delhi and is currently accompanying a group of tourists to a few places outside the city .

Meanwhile, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted that she had asked Delhi Police to take necessary actions against the perpetrators and requested the India's ambassador to the US to speak to the woman.

Police had initiated an inquiry after they received an email from a US-based NGO about the alleged gang rape. On Friday night, the survivor had sent via email a complain to police asking them to register an FIR against the five men. In the mail, she said that she had come to India, along with a group of tourists.

She also claimed she had planned her tour after consulting a US-based travel agent. The agency contacted its partner firms in India, which had booked the hotel and employed the prime accused as her tour guide.

The survivor wrote that on the second day of her visit, she had given a copy of the card key access of her room to the guide so that he could plan the journey .

On the day of the incident, he had come to the her room with a water bottle. She said that after having water from the bottle, she started feeling dizzy .Then, four other men—a hotel ward boy , a youth whom the prime accused had introduced to her as his cousin and two others (they managed a tourist bus) — entered the room and locked it.

The tour guide asked the survivor to lie down on the bed after which she fell unconscious, she alleged. The suspects then took turns to rape her. When she woke up, she found the prime accused in the room. He threatened her with dire consequences if she raised an alarm or informed anyone about the incident, she told in her mail to police. The main accused also threatened to release her photographs on websites if she did not comply with his demands. The survivor alleged he raped her the next day too.

The woman said that she was so traumatized over the next two days that she did not leave her room. Later, she cut short her trip and returned to Pennsylvania. “We began an inquiry after receiving the email from the NGO. A chronology of events was established. We then contacted the NGO and reached the complainant who wrote back to us. Following this, a case was registered against the men,“ said joint commissioner Depender Pathak, the new spokesperson of Delhi Police.