A US tourist was gang-raped in India this week. The woman was raped by a truck driver and two other men after she hitched a ride in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
"The 30-year-old was raped by men in a truck on Monday night. They offered her a lift and she accepted it," police Inspector Abhimanyu Kumar told AFP.
According to Kumar, medical tests confirmed the rape. Police are now on the hunt for the accused men in the area of Manali, a tourist hotspot in the foothills of the Himalayas.
"The woman cannot remember the number plate of the truck and she could not understand what the accused were talking about. They drove the truck to an isolated spot and raped her for nearly one hour," he said.
Every truck driver in Manali had been ordered to report to the police as part of the investigation. Under Indian law, the woman cannot be identified. She got to Manali on Monday and will stay there to help police with the investigation.
"She will have to identify the accused when they are arrested," said another senior police officer V.K. Dhawan. "It is a big challenge to trace the accused."
The tourist was vacationing with three other Americans. She was on her way to her guest house alone after she bathed at a nearby hot water spring called "Vashist."
"The victim's friends wanted to spend more time at the spring but she was tired and decided to walk alone to the guest house," Dhawan added.
The woman is in touch with the US embassy in New Delhi.
"We are in contact with authorities but due to issues of privacy we have no further comment," a US embassy spokesperson told AFP.
This incident comes just one day after a 21-year-old Irish charity worker was raped in Kolkata. The country has been fighting rape sex crimes for months. Protests broke out in the capital in December and January after a student was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi.
Tourism has been impacted by these incidents as a survey showed that foreign women tourists to the country had dropped by 35 percent.
The country is attempting to implement tougher anti-rape laws. In March, Indian lawmakers increased the punishment for sex offenders. A rapist will get death penalty if a victim dies and there is a minimum 20-year prison sentence for gang-rape.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
