Swiss woman gangrape: MP Cong leaders to protest, 6 held

Two days after a 39-year-old Swiss woman was allegedly gangraped while camping with her husband in a forest here, six accused were arrested on Sunday and police recovered from them a mobile and laptop robbed from the couple. “We have arrested six accused persons who raped the Swiss woman and recovered her mobile and laptop,” S M Afzal, IG, Chambal Range, told PTI. They were identified as Baba, Bhutha, Rampro, Gaza alias Brajesh, Vishnu Kanjar and Nitin Kanjar. While five were picked up earlier in the day, Nitin was arrested in the evening in Niwadi, about 100 km from here. All the accused have admitted to the assault that took place on Friday night, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) D K Arya said. The Opposition Congress will stage statewide protests today over the gangrape of a Swiss woman in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh. [caption id=“attachment_665203” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Five people who allegedly gangraped the Swiss adventure tourist in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh. PTI[/caption] While the state Congress president Kantilal Bhuria will stage a protest in Bhopal, the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Singh will stage a sit-in at Datia to highlight the rising crime against women in the state, the party sources said. Ajay Singh has asked the Congress Legislature Party to raise the issue vociferously in the Assembly tomorrow, they said. The protest would be held in the state capital from 1 pm to 3 pm, while at the district headquarters across the state it would be held between 12 noon and 2 pm, they said. Both Bhuria and Ajay appealed to the Congressmen and people to take part in the protest in large numbers to expose the ruling BJP government on the issue of deteriorating law and order situation in the state, specially the crime against women. They said that the Datia gangrape incident has put the country and the state to shame across the world and has severely affected the tourism industry in the state. Women in the state should be provided licensed guns, as the government had failed to protect their honour, the Leader of Opposition said. The alleged gangrape of the Swiss woman took place at Jhadia village, eight kms from Datia town, at around 9 pm on 15 March, when the 39-year-old lady along with her partner was touring the region on a bicycle as part of their India tour. The Swiss tourist, on a cycling trip along with her husband, was allegedly gangraped at a forest area in Datia district, on the night of 15 March. The traumatised woman was treated in the nearby city of Gwalior and was in a state of shock, police said, adding she later left for Delhi. Earlier, police had detained over 20 people and on the basis of leads provided by them the arrests were made. On a three-month vacation, the couple–who are adventure tourists– was camping at a forest area for the night while on their way back from Orchha, home to temples of Lord Ram, and were planning to cycle to Agra when they were attacked and looted by some persons who took away their laptop, mobile and other valuables. Agencies