- Congress workers surrounded a police office where the personnel kept the accused in the Udaipur rape case
- The Rajasthan Police said they will file a chargesheet in seven days and will fast track the case
- Ex chief minister Ashok Gehlot criticised the state government over what he called bad law and order situation
The casting director of an advertisement shoot has been arrested by the Udaipur Police for allegedly raping a French tourist in the Rajasthan city.
The accused, Sidharth Ojha alias Pushpraj, was hustled into the office of the Superintendent of Police (SP) amid a huge protest by Congress workers.
The protesters ran towards the rape accused when he was brought to the SP's office.
Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who is from the Congress, in a post on X had said the crime has tarnished the reputation of the state which is popular with tourists. It also exposed the bad law and order situation in the state, Mr Gehlot said.
The Congress workers also tried to enter the SO's office. They were stopped by a large number of police personnel.
"We were protesting against the deteriorating law and order situation in the city and the state. Recently, a young woman was killed by her boyfriend because she was engaged to someone else. And now a French tourist has been raped. This is very bad for the image of the city of Udaipur," Udaipur city Congress chief Fateh Singh Rathore said.
The Udaipur Police said they have cracked the case and will be fast tracking it, given the sensitivity of the crime and since it involves a foreign national.
Udaipur SP Yogesh Goyal said that on June 22 night, a French woman who came to Udaipur to shoot an ad was sexually assaulted by a member of the shooting team.
"The next day, as soon as the matter was reported to the police, we filed an FIR and recorded a statement of the survivor. We also went to the crime scene. She came to Udaipur on June 22 itself to shoot an ad for a smartphone maker. They had already done some shootings at a few locations in the city," the police officer said.
After the shoot, there was a party at a restaurant where one of the crew members, Siddharth alias Pushpraj, who was also the man who organised the shoot, took the French woman out of the restaurant on the pretext of taking a smoke break, Mr Goyal said.
However, he took her to his room and raped her, the police officer said.
The accused is a resident of Chittorgarh. He was arrested from a highway. He has admitted to the crime, the police officer said, adding they will file a chargesheet in a week and fast track the case.
The police said the accused and the survivor did not know each other before the day of the crime. The French woman is in a stable condition, police sources said. She has been living in Delhi since November 2024 and has done ad shoots in the past.
The accused and a business partner run a company called 'Udaipur Casting Call'. They took the contract for the ad shoot. They have been working with another company in Jodhpur for the shoot.
