“They wanted to rape me”: A Spanish tourist recounts her ordeal in India

“Something we wouldn’t wish on anyone.” A Spanish tourist who was gang-raped while visiting India on a motorbike on Friday testified on social networks with her husband in a video published this Sunday.

The couple was in their tent when “seven men raped” Fernanda, the victim’s husband explained on camera, next to her in the hospital. The 45-year-old woman has multiple stab wounds on her face. “They beat us, and stole our things, but not much because they just wanted to rape me,” is a comment on the video.

Both were unable to hide their emotions as they recalled what had happened to them a few hours ago. The victim’s husband was also injured in several places on his face. “My mouth is destroyed, but Fernanda is in worse shape than me,” he says in the narration.

The couple revealed that they were hit on the head with helmets and stones. Fortunately, the girl had her upper body covered with a jacket which helped to “delay the blows,” the video states.

Vincent and Fernanda are traveling the world on a motorcycle, the stages of which they share on their Instagram account. He came to India during the summer after staying in Pakistan. In early January, they posed in front of the Taj Mahal.

Police are identifying the suspects

The attack took place on Friday evening in Dumka district of the eastern state of Jharkhand, where the couple had stayed overnight in a tent. The Spanish tourist managed to reach a patrolling police van around 11pm and was taken to hospital for treatment, a police official told the Times of India newspaper.

Three people were arrested in connection with the attack, but police were looking for other suspects. According to Times of India, all have been identified. The victim is being treated at a local hospital in Dumka and an investigation is underway.

According to official national data, in 2022, India recorded an average of about 90 rapes per day. However, many cases go unreported due to stigmatization of victims and lack of confidence in police investigations. With cases stalled for years in India’s overcrowded criminal justice system, convictions are rare.

Some particularly bad things have marked the country. In 2014, a Danish tourist was gang-raped in a street in New Delhi. But in 2012 the country was overshadowed by the unbelievably brutal gang rape and murder of an Indian student on a bus in the Indian capital.

Physiotherapy student Jyoti Singh and her friend Avindra Pratap Pandey were returning from the cinema on the evening of December 16, 2012, when they boarded a bus, believing it would take them safely. The vehicle was in fact driven by a drunken gang of six men, including a 17-year-old teenager. Avindra was brutally beaten, and Jyoti was raped and brutally tortured by six assailants. The assailants then threw both the bloodied victims from the bus on the side of the road. The girl eventually died of internal bleeding during treatment at the hospital.