This Article is From Jun 06, 2013

Three arrested for gang-rape of US tourist in Manali

Manali: The police in Manali has arrested three men, all from Nepal, over the gang-rape of a US tourist who was attacked after she hitched a ride in a truck.  

The 30-year-old American accepted a lift on Monday night after struggling to find a taxi to return to her hotel in the popular tourist destination in Himachal Pradesh, 500 kms from Delhi.

The woman has told police that the truck driver and two accomplices abducted her and took her to a secluded spot where they raped her for over an hour.

She has given the police description of the men and also identified the truck model, which is commonly used to transport construction materials in the state.

The incident follows the alleged rape of a 21-year-old Irish charity worker in the eastern city of Kolkata at the weekend, and comes as India tries to fight widespread sex crime with tougher laws.

Mass protests erupted across India in December and January following the fatal gang-rape of the student in New Delhi, a crime which brought simmering anger about the treatment of women in India to the surface.

A survey by an Indian trade body this year found the number of female tourists visiting the country had dropped by 35 percent following several sex attacks that made global headlines.

Measures passed by lawmakers in March increased punishments for sex offenders to include the death penalty if a victim dies and a minimum 20-year prison sentence for gang-rape.

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