The Indian Police stated this Tuesday that all the suspects involved in the attack and rape of a Spanish woman and the assault on her partner last Friday in northeastern India have been arrested. “We have arrested everyone involved in the case,” Pitamber Singh Kherwar, police superintendent of Dumka, a remote region of the state of Jharkhand, where the incident occurred, told EFE.
Four more suspects were arrested Monday night, bringing the total number of people believed to be involved in the crime to eight, Kherwal added.
The couple of experienced travelers, who have been traveling the world by motorcycle for several years, had set up a tent in an open field in a village in Dumka to spend the night last Friday, when around midnight a group of men attacked.
The case has received great media attention, in part because it involves foreigners, which is why the police formed two special investigation teams to collect all possible evidence. Additionally, the Jharkand High Court ordered a response from the state’s top authorities in charge of the investigation, the regional home minister, and the police chief of Dumka district, where the attack occurred, by March 7.
So far the case is in a subordinate court that, according to the judicial process, will be able to bring the case to a conclusion once the police investigation is concluded within the next 30 days. In this sense, the Spanish couple went this morning to testify for the last time before the police, before getting on their motorcycles and embarking on a trip of approximately two days to Nepal, their last destination before returning to Spain.
The law establishes harsh penalties for rape, most of which are non-bailable. A rape under the Indian Penal Code is punishable by not less than 10 years in prison, and a gang rape by up to life in prison.
The couple left the Asian country this Tuesday for Nepal, after giving new statements to the police in the Dumka district, where the event took place. The couple left dressed in their suits and on board their motorcycles and all their belongings, to undertake a trip of approximately two days to the Himalayan country. The authorities offered the couple a police squad to escort them to the Jharkhand state border, the source added.
