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A Spanish travel vlogger who was allegedly gang-raped by seven men while on a motorbike trip through India has slammed “absurd comments” that she and her husband “brought this on ourselves” and says the same thing “could happen to anyone” in any country.
Four men have been arrested over the alleged attack, which occurred on Friday night in the eastern state of Jharkhand in the Dumka district, with the remaining suspects still being sought by police as of Monday.
The 28-year-old victim is a motorbike travel blogger who has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram with her husband, under the handle Vuelta al Mundo en Moto (Around the World by Motorbike).
The couple, Vicente and Fernanda, announced to their followers in a series of Instagram Stories on Friday night that they had been attacked. Fernanda was allegedly raped by seven men while Vicente was bashed and had a knife held to his throat.
They had recently concluded a trip to Sri Lanka before the Indian leg of their journey, and were on their way to Nepal via Bhagalpur. The attack took place after the couple stopped to camp the night in a tent near the Hansdiha market.
“We have read many absurd comments, saying that we brought it on ourselves by coming to India, or by camping, that nothing has happened to us,” Fernanda said in an update on Monday.
“We mean that this can happen to anyone, to your daughter, sister, your mother, and in any country in the world. Nobody is free, this has already happened many times in Spain, Brazil and America. So don’t talk nonsense that it’s because we are in India.”
The couple said India was a “country with many good people” and “like all countries, it has its good and bad things” and was “worth visiting”.
“This can happen to any traveller, anyone,” Vicente said.
“We have camped in 66 countries, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan … many countries that are considered ‘dangerous’ and we have never had any problems. The only time we were robbed was in Spain, in Barcelona.”
He claimed it was “much safer than Europe”.
“We leave our things on the motorcycle, phone, we go out to eat and no one touches anything,” he said. “They have never done it. We ask that justice be done, not only for us but also for all the other women and girls who have gone through this. We will not stop living and hiding at home in fear because of this scum.”
They also shared an image of one of the alleged attackers still at large, urging the public to help police in finding the man.
It comes as a local official who met with the victim said she was “emotionally shattered but was in stable physical condition, and medical examination was in process”.
“[We] assured them that the wrongdoers will be apprehended as soon as possible and prosecuted,” Anil Kumar Mishra, Dumka’s Principal District Judge (PDJ) and Chairman of the District Legal Services Authority, said in a report to the Jharkhand Legal Services Authority (JHALSA), The Indian Express newspaper reported.
The judge and his team ensured that the woman had security, assisted in recording her statement and directed that compensation of one million rupees ($18,530) be paid to her, a JHALSA official said.
Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad has taken suo motu cognisance of the incident — a unique power of the Indian judiciary allowing a court to take notice of a matter without receiving a formal petition or complaint — directing police to file regular reports on the investigation.
Announcing the news on Friday, a distraught Fernanda was seen with visible bruises and swelling on her face. “Something has happened to us that we would not wish on anyone, seven men have raped me, they have beaten us and robbed us, although not many things, because what they wanted was to rape me,” read the caption on one video.
Vicente explained that they had been brought to the Saraiyahat Community Health Centre so Fernanda could have a rape kit done. “They beat us,” he said. “They put a knife to my neck, and told me they were going to kill me. Fernanda was raped. Seven of them. Seven men. Sons of bitches.”
He said in another post, showing his broken teeth and swollen lip, that he was hit several times in the head with a helmet and his “mouth is destroyed”.
The woman was able to reach a police patrol van at around 11pm and was taken to hospital for treatment, police officer Pitamber Singh Kherwar told The Times of India newspaper.
The Spanish embassy in India has contacted authorities and dispatched staff to the region to assist the couple, Euronews reported.
The shocking incident has again shone a spotlight on the high rate of sexual violence in India where an average of nearly 90 rapes were reported every day in 2022, according to data by the National Crime Records Bureau.
However, large numbers go unreported due to prevailing stigmas around victims and a lack of faith in police investigations. Convictions remain rare, with cases getting stuck for years in India’s clogged-up criminal justice system.
The gang rape and murder of an Indian student made global headlines in 2012.
Jyoti Singh, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, was raped and assaulted and left for dead by five men and a teenager on a bus in New Delhi in December that year.
The horrific crime shone an international spotlight on India’s high levels of sexual violence and sparked weeks of protests, and eventually a change in the law to introduce the death penalty for rape.
Sexual violence against female tourists is also disturbingly common.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says travellers should “exercise a high degree of caution” in India.
“Women may face higher levels of verbal and physical harassment or sexual assault,” DFAT says. “Avoid travelling alone, even in major cities and tourist sites. It is rare for people who commit these crimes to be successfully prosecuted by the law.”
In one notorious case in 2018, 33-year-old Latvian tourist Liga Skromane was drugged, raped and beheaded before her corpse was left hanging upside down in a forest.
Reduxx founder Anna Slatz, who shared Vicente and Fernanda’s initial Instagram videos on X where they have since been viewed 152 million times, was critical of their latest update.
“I’m so sorry but trying to do a ‘kumbaya it’s a beautiful country please don’t judge’ while your wife is laying there with bruises on her face because she was gang-raped by seven men is PATHOLOGICALLY INSANE,” she wrote on X.
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