Brothers Arrested for Three-Week Long Rape of Japanese Tourist

Police in India have arrested two brothers and three other men over the kidnap and continuous rape a Japanese student over three weeks near a Buddhist pilgrimage site.

The 22-year-old Japanese woman was held hostage at gunpoint in a secluded basement close to the Bodh Gaya temple site, pictured, in the east of India.

“When her health deteriorated due to repeated rape, she was brought to town for medical treatment,” said a police officer who is part of the investigation.

In another level of horror, the two brothers intended to keep the woman in sexual bondage after she became well enough following medical treatment. Luckily the woman escaped from the hospital and got in touch with other Japanese tourists, who helped her contact their country’s consulate in the nearby city of Kolkata.

The sick rapists, Sajid Khan, 32-years-old, and his brother Jawed, 25-years-old, were Japanese-speaking tour guides who used their job to lure the tourist in.

“We have arrested three other people who befriended the victim in Kolkata. They have been charged with common conspiracy and intention to kidnap and rape,” the police said. The trio also extorted money from the victim. She was a university student thought to have been studying life in rural India for some time.

The attack echoes that of a 25-year-old Japanese woman who was gang-raped in 2010 while she was on her way to the railway station in the same city, Gaya.

With some tragic irony, Bodh Gaya is considered to be one of Buddhism’s most holy sites, home to one of the earliest Buddhist temples in India. The Buddha himself is said to have achieved enlightenment there.

The Guardian newspaper reports that Indian officials have come under intense scrutiny over the country’s efforts to curb violence against women, particularly after international outcry following the fatal gang rape of a medical student in Delhi in 2012. Since then, several attacks on foreign women have been reported, leading to a dip in tourist numbers in the country. For example, last January, a 51-year-old Danish tourist was robbed and gang raped at knifepoint in Delhi and in 2013, a Swiss cyclist holidaying in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh was robbed and gang raped by five men, all of whom were later sentenced to life in prison.