BHOPAL, India: A Swiss female tourist was gang-raped in rural central India, police said yesterday, the latest victim of sexual violence against women in the country.
The woman was on a cycling trip with her husband in impoverished Madhya Pradesh state, when seven to eight men attacked the couple on Friday night, sexually assaulting the woman and robbing the pair, police said.
The attackers “tied up the man and raped the woman”, local police official S.M. Afzal told AFP, adding that they stole 10,000 rupees ($ 185) and a mobile phone from the woman.
The attack comes just months after thousands took to the streets to protest against the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in December.
The couple were on their way to the tourist destination of Agra, home to the iconic Taj Mahal monument, in northern India when they stopped to camp for the night in a village.
“The victims, who belong to Switzerland, put up a tent to stay overnight” when the attack occurred, Afzal said.
Indian media reports said the men were wielding sticks when they attacked the couple.
After the attack, the rape victim, aged about 40, was admitted to hospital in Gwalior city, 212 miles from state capital Bhopal, local police official M.S. Dhodee said.
The victim was conscious yesterday and speaking to authorities, police said. No other details of her condition were known.
Dhodee said that police were still investigating the case but added that “a rape case has been registered against seven unidentified people”.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry in Geneva released a statement saying they were aware of the case, but declined to provide any details, citing concerns about confidentiality.
“Our Swiss mission is in contact with local authorities,” the statement said.
Reacting to the attack, the state’s opposition leader Ajay Singh said it “had brought a bad name to Madhya Pradesh at the international level”.
In 2003 a 36-year-old female Swiss diplomat was abducted in the car park of a popular New Delhi auditorium, driven away by two men and raped. She was freed later nearby. No one has been convicted for that attack.
Concern remains high in India over the safety and status of women and girls in the country of 1.2 billion.
Last Monday, Ram Singh, one of six accused on trial over the December assault was found hanged in his high-security jail cell in New Delhi. Police suspect he hanged himself, but his family says he was murdered.
Under a new bill approved by India’s Cabinet earlier in the week, rapists face a minimum 20-year jail term and the death penalty if the victim dies from her injuries or is left in a persistent vegetative state.
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Swiss woman gang-raped in India
Swiss woman gang-raped in India
Russian poisonings aim to kill — and send a message
- Neurotoxin epibatidine, found in Ecuadoran frogs, was identified in laboratory analyzes of samples from Navalny’s body
- Even if a poisoning can fail — some targets survived, such as Yushchenko and Skripal — it also serves to send a message
PARIS: Polonium, Novichok and now dart frog poison: the finding that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed with a rare toxin has revived the spectre of Moscow’s use of poisons against opponents — a hallmark of its secret services, according to experts.
The neurotoxin epibatidine, found in Ecuadoran frogs, was identified in laboratory analyzes of samples from Navalny’s body, the British, Swedish, French, German and Dutch governments said in a joint statement released on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
“Only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin,” said Britain’s Foreign Office, with the joint statement pointing to Russia as the prime suspect.
The Kremlin on Monday rejected what it called the “biased and baseless” accusation it assassinated Navalny, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin who died on February 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence in a Russian Arctic prison colony.
But the allegations echo other cases of opponents being poisoned in connection — proven or suspected — with Russian agents.
In 2006, the Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko was killed by polonium poison in London. Ukrainian politician Viktor Yushchenko, campaigning against a Russian-backed candidate for the presidency, was disfigured by dioxin in 2004. And the nerve agent Novichok was used in the attempted poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.
“We should remain cautious, but this hypothesis is all the more plausible given that Navalny had already been the target of an assassination attempt (in 2020) on a plane involving underwear soaked with an organophosphate nerve agent, Novichok, which is manufactured only in Russia,” said Olivier Lepick, a fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research specializing in chemical weapons.
Toxin ‘never been used’
“To my knowledge, epibatidine has never been used for assassinations,” Lepick added.
Until now, the substance was mainly known for its effect on animals that try to attack Ecuadoran poison dart frogs.
“It’s a powerful neurotoxin that first hyperstimulates the nervous system in an extremely violent way and then shuts it down. So you’ll convulse and then become paralyzed, especially in terms of breathing,” said Jerome Langrand, director of the Paris poison control center.
But to the scientist, using this substance to poison Navalny is “quite unsettling.”
“One wonders, why choose this particular poison? If it was to conceal a poisoning, it’s not the best substance. Or is it meant to spread an atmosphere of fear, to reinforce an image of power and danger with the message: ‘We can poison anywhere and with anything’?” he said.
Russian ‘calling card’
For many experts, the use of poison bears a Russian signature.
“It’s something specific to the Soviet services. In the 1920s, Lenin created a poison laboratory called ‘Kamera’ (’chamber’ in Russian), Lab X. This laboratory grew significantly under Stalin, and then under his successors Khrushchev and Brezhnev... It was this laboratory that produced Novichok,” said Andrei Kozovoi, professor of Russian history at the University of Lille.
“The Russians don’t have a monopoly on it, but there is a dimension of systematization, with considerable resources put in place a very long time ago — the creation of the poison laboratory, which developed without any restrictions,” he added.
Even if a poisoning can fail — some targets survived, such as Yushchenko and Skripal — it also serves to send a message, and acted as “a calling card” left by the Russian services, according to Kozovoi.
“Poison is associated in the collective imagination and in psychology with a terrible, agonizing death. The use of chemical substances or poisons carries an explicit intention to terrorize the target and, in cases such as Litvinenko, Skripal or Navalny, to warn anyone who might be tempted to betray Mother Russia or become an opponent,” said Lepick.
“A neurotoxin, a radioactive substance, or a toxic substance is much more frightening than an explosive or being shot to death.”
The neurotoxin epibatidine, found in Ecuadoran frogs, was identified in laboratory analyzes of samples from Navalny’s body, the British, Swedish, French, German and Dutch governments said in a joint statement released on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
“Only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin,” said Britain’s Foreign Office, with the joint statement pointing to Russia as the prime suspect.
The Kremlin on Monday rejected what it called the “biased and baseless” accusation it assassinated Navalny, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin who died on February 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence in a Russian Arctic prison colony.
But the allegations echo other cases of opponents being poisoned in connection — proven or suspected — with Russian agents.
In 2006, the Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko was killed by polonium poison in London. Ukrainian politician Viktor Yushchenko, campaigning against a Russian-backed candidate for the presidency, was disfigured by dioxin in 2004. And the nerve agent Novichok was used in the attempted poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.
“We should remain cautious, but this hypothesis is all the more plausible given that Navalny had already been the target of an assassination attempt (in 2020) on a plane involving underwear soaked with an organophosphate nerve agent, Novichok, which is manufactured only in Russia,” said Olivier Lepick, a fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research specializing in chemical weapons.
Toxin ‘never been used’
“To my knowledge, epibatidine has never been used for assassinations,” Lepick added.
Until now, the substance was mainly known for its effect on animals that try to attack Ecuadoran poison dart frogs.
“It’s a powerful neurotoxin that first hyperstimulates the nervous system in an extremely violent way and then shuts it down. So you’ll convulse and then become paralyzed, especially in terms of breathing,” said Jerome Langrand, director of the Paris poison control center.
But to the scientist, using this substance to poison Navalny is “quite unsettling.”
“One wonders, why choose this particular poison? If it was to conceal a poisoning, it’s not the best substance. Or is it meant to spread an atmosphere of fear, to reinforce an image of power and danger with the message: ‘We can poison anywhere and with anything’?” he said.
Russian ‘calling card’
For many experts, the use of poison bears a Russian signature.
“It’s something specific to the Soviet services. In the 1920s, Lenin created a poison laboratory called ‘Kamera’ (’chamber’ in Russian), Lab X. This laboratory grew significantly under Stalin, and then under his successors Khrushchev and Brezhnev... It was this laboratory that produced Novichok,” said Andrei Kozovoi, professor of Russian history at the University of Lille.
“The Russians don’t have a monopoly on it, but there is a dimension of systematization, with considerable resources put in place a very long time ago — the creation of the poison laboratory, which developed without any restrictions,” he added.
Even if a poisoning can fail — some targets survived, such as Yushchenko and Skripal — it also serves to send a message, and acted as “a calling card” left by the Russian services, according to Kozovoi.
“Poison is associated in the collective imagination and in psychology with a terrible, agonizing death. The use of chemical substances or poisons carries an explicit intention to terrorize the target and, in cases such as Litvinenko, Skripal or Navalny, to warn anyone who might be tempted to betray Mother Russia or become an opponent,” said Lepick.
“A neurotoxin, a radioactive substance, or a toxic substance is much more frightening than an explosive or being shot to death.”
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