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October 16, 2003
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Thursday
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Sha'aban 19, 1424
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Swiss diplomat abducted in Delhi
NEW DELHI, Oct 15: Two men allegedly abducted a Swiss diplomat in her own car on Tuesday night and raped her in her vehicle in New Delhi after she watched a movie at an international film festival, the police here said on Wednesday.
The woman, an accredited diplomat, was attacked as she was getting into her car at the Siri Fort cinema complex after watching a late night movie at India’s week-long 34th International Film Festival.
The victim is identified as a 36-year-old Swiss diplomat attached to the consular section of the embassy of Switzerland.
“At 10pm she came out of the auditorium after watching a night-show film and as she was entering her car, two unidentified, well-dressed and English-speaking men forced her into the back seat and drove away,” a police official said.
“While one drove, the other raped her. The woman was later dropped at Safdarjung Enclave, four kilometres from Siri Fort at around 10.30pm. The two also took a ring she was wearing and drove away,” the official said.
India’s foreign ministry was in a huddle as Indian diplomats said they were examining the possible international fallout to the rape of their colleague from Switzerland.
The Indian government said it was taking a “serious view of the shocking crime” and both New Delhi’s federal administrator and police commissioner were involved in the investigation.
The administrator said the investigation into the crime was in full swing and conceded that incidents of rape were on the rise in New Delhi, home to 14 million people. “We view the two incidents with seriousness. These kind of incidents must not happen, whether it involved a diplomat or somebody else.”
The police chief placed under suspension five policemen, including an inspector, for “showing a lack of alertness”.
Within half an hour of the Swiss woman’s rape, a second woman was attacked just after she came out after watching a flick in Siri Fort, but the police said she was an intended victim of robbery and not sexual assault.—AFP
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