Man gets 10 years in jail for rape of Dutch tourist in Jaipur hotel

JAIPUR: A local court here on Thursday sentenced a 42-year-old man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for the rape of a Dutch tourist in a city hotel in March earlier this year.
The court also imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 on Bijju Murlidharan. He was accused of raping a 31-year-old woman from the Netherlands on the pretext of providing ayurvedic massage service.
The woman had filed an FIR at the Sindhi Camp police station on March 17. The police registered the FIR under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC.
SHO (Sindhi Camp) Gunjan Soni said that the accused was arrested within 24 hours of registering the FIR. He was found to be a native of Kerala and was staying in the Khatipura area.
Public prosecutor Naresh Gajraj said that the accused was convicted on Thursday.
"We completed the investigation in two days and filed a chargesheet against him on March 22 before the court," Soni said.
Soni said that the police requested the complainant to extend her visit for a few days so that police could expedite their probe. "She agreed and stayed for a few more days in Jaipur. She also wanted to make sure that the accused gets punishment," Soni said.
Police said that the woman was shocked after the incident and had approached police with the help of the hotel's staff. The officials said that they assured her that the accused will be arrested.
Soni said that the police constituted multiple teams for the investigation. Even as the complaint was being registered, police teams had already fanned out to track down the accused before he could flee.
Senior police officials, including the then DCP (West) Richa Tomar, and Additional DCP (West) Ram Singh also monitored the probe.
The police had recorded the complainant's statements and expedited investigations so that the trial could begin at the earliest.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)