The Jharkhand High Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of the gang rape of a Spanish woman in Dumka on Friday night. A Division Bench led by Acting Chief Justice S. Chandrashekhar sought a report from Jharkhand’s Chief Secretary and Director-General of Police (DGP), as well as the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Dumka district, where the incident took place.
The next hearing is scheduled on March 7.
The court said, “The incident of crime of any kind against a foreign national may have serious national and international repercussions including impacting the tourism economy of the country. A sex-related crime against a foreign woman is likely to bring adverse publicity against the country and thereby tarnishing the image of India across the globe. As we read from the newspaper reports, ‘X’ is a Spanish-speaking person but it is not known whether there is the facility of a translator with the help of whom her statement was recorded.”
