NEW DELHI: A Polish woman was drugged and raped as she travelled to the Indian capital with her two-year-daughter, police said Sunday, the latest in a string of sexual attacks on women in the country.

The woman, 33, and her daughter were travelling in a taxi from the city of Mathura where they live to New Delhi last Thursday when she was allegedly raped by the driver.

The driver drugged the woman at some point during the 150-kilometre journey and she was attacked after she passed out, Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP.

The woman woke up on a bench outside a railway station in New Delhi with her toddler crying by her side, the officer said, adding that details of the attack were still unknown.

“It is still a bit unclear, but prima facie, it seems she sat (in the taxi) voluntarily. But yes, thereafter, in the car he drugged her using some spray...medical report has confirmed rape,” he said.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, reported the incident to police who are searching for the driver, Bhagat said.

The woman, a devotee of the Hindu god Krishna, had been living in Mathura — believed to be the birthplace of Krishna — in Uttar Pradesh state for the past three years and worked in the cloth export business, he said.

She and her daughter had been waiting on a busy road in Mathura for a taxi to take them to the capital when the driver approached.

The Jan 2 incident comes barely a week after India marked the first anniversary of the death of a student who was gang-raped on a New Delhi bus in an attack that sent shockwaves across the nation.

The gang-rape triggered massive protests over the levels of violence against women, but in the last 12 months there have been several more cases of local and foreign woman being attacked.

A judge last month sentenced three Nepalese men to 20 years in jail for the gang-rape of a US tourist in June in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.

Six men were sentenced to life in prison in July last year for the gang-rape and robbery of a 39-year-old Swiss woman cyclist who had been holidaying in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

Opinion

Editorial

Balochistan tragedy
Updated 26 May, 2026

Balochistan tragedy

The state keeps reiterating the role of hostile foreign actors in fomenting unrest, yet seems to be short on ideas on how to prevent the ingress of such actors and their ideologies in Baloch society.
Economic engagement
26 May, 2026

Economic engagement

AN array of investment MoUs valued at $7bn signed during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s China visit signifies...
Flotilla abuse
26 May, 2026

Flotilla abuse

THE testimonies that have emerged from international activists, who were part of a Gaza-bound flotilla, paint a...
In chains
Updated 25 May, 2026

In chains

THE question should never be about who is at the receiving end at any given point in time: an assault on an...
Climate shocks
25 May, 2026

Climate shocks

THE latest State Bank report documenting recurring climatic disasters in Pakistan during the period between 2000 and...
Justice deferred
25 May, 2026

Justice deferred

PAKISTAN’S courts are quick to remind the public that justice takes time. Increasingly, however, it is the conduct...