Polish woman raped in India while travelling with daughter

Published January 6, 2014
The driver drugged the woman at some point during the 150-kilometre journey and she was attacked after she passed out, Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP. — File Photo by Reuters
The driver drugged the woman at some point during the 150-kilometre journey and she was attacked after she passed out, Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP. — File Photo by Reuters

NEW DELHI: A Polish woman was drugged and raped as she travelled 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 travelling 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-kilometre 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 Jan 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.

Opinion

Editorial

Disregarding CCI
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Disregarding CCI

The failure to regularly convene CCI meetings means that the process of democratic decision-making is falling apart.
Defeating TB
04 Nov, 2024

Defeating TB

CONSIDERING the fact that Pakistan has the fifth highest burden of tuberculosis in the world as per the World Health...
Ceasefire charade
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Ceasefire charade

The US talks of peace, while simultaneously arming and funding their Israeli allies, are doomed to fail, and are little more than a charade.
Concerning measures
Updated 03 Nov, 2024

Concerning measures

The govt must seek political input and consensus on the changes it is seeking to make and be open about its intentions.
Short-lived relief?
03 Nov, 2024

Short-lived relief?

POLICYMAKERS must be jumping with joy. At the close of the first quarter of FY25, the budget posted a consolidated...
Brisk spread
03 Nov, 2024

Brisk spread

THE surge in polio cases has reached distressing levels with a tally of 45 last reported, after two cases emerged in...