Saudi diplomat booked for gangrape: All you need to know about the case so far

A diplomat at the Saudi Arabia embassy in New Delhi has been booked for rape while his wife and daughter have been booked for torturing domestic helps in Gurgaon’s Millennium City, the Haryana Police said on Tuesday. The case The diplomat, who has not been named, and his unknown friends and guests have been booked for raping, gangraping two Nepali women while his wife and daughter have been booked for torturing the victims. According to a report in The Hindu, the women were kept captive in the diplomats home in Gurgaon for the first three months and then they were taken to Jeddah where they were forced to have unnatural and oral sex with him and his guests. [caption id=“attachment_2426970” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI image[/caption] The women were “rescued” from the apartment flat on the fifth floor of Ambience Island Caitriona complex in Guragon on Monday evening . The victims were “rescued” after the intervention of the Nepalese embassy and with the help of an NGO Maiti India, police told IANS. “There were days when seven to eight men — all from Saudi Arabia — would assault us. If we resisted, the diplomat and his family would threaten to kill us and dispose of our bodies in the sewer,” one of the women told The Indian Express. Balkrishan Pandey of Maiti India told IANS that another woman who was kept at the diplomat’s apartment as a domestic help managed to escape and that is when the matter came to light. While arrangements have been made for the women to be taken back home, reports suggest that the diplomat is untraceable. Women rescued from diplomat’s house say they were not even given proper meals The women were reportedly lured on pretext of getting all comforts and a high salary for a job in Saudi Arabia by a woman in Nepal six months ago. According to The Hindu,  the women were then sold to another agent for Rs 1 lakh each and then to the Saudi diplomat, who they identified as ‘Majid’. The women have alleged that they were not even given proper meals. The Indian Express quotes one of the women as saying, “We were made to do all the household chores, from morning till late in the night, and then subjected to sexual assault at the end of the day. We were not given food. Sometimes we only survived on biscuits, bread and watery tea. We were never allowed to step out of the house.” Does the fact that a diplomat is involved affect the case?  A police officer said a case against the diplomat and “unknown people” has been registered at the DLF-2 police station under sections of gang-rape (376 D), rape (376), unnatural sex (377) and some other sections of Indian Penal Code including 342, 323 and 120B. While no arrests had been made yet, officials told NDTV that the police are likely to consult the Ministry of External Affairs with regards to the case. However,  The Hindu quoted an official as saying, “Despite the terrible nature of the crime, unless the Saudi Arabian government waives it, the immunity will protect them completely.” Saudi Arabia has also reportedly accused India of having violated the  Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which states, “The receiving State shall treat consular officers with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on their person, freedom or dignity.” Will it affect diplomatic ties? This case has the potential of souring diplomatic ties between India and Saudi Arabia even as the Saudi embassy has dismissed the charges saying they are “completely false” and “contrary to facts in our possession”. A Saudi embassy official also disapproved of the way police was damaging a person and a country’s reputation on the basis of mere charges made by a third person and said it violated the rights of the diplomat and his family. The Telegraph reports that the Saudi Arabian Embassy has even complained to the Ministry of External Affairs, which in turn has asked the Gurgaon police for a report on the case.