Saudi diplomat, family charged with rape: Embassy cries foul

Gurgaon: A diplomat at the Saudi Arabia embassy in New Delhi has been booked for rape while his wife and daughter have been booked for torturing domestic helps in this Millennium City, Haryana Police said Tuesday. But the Saudi embassy, dismissing the charges as "completely false" and "contrary to facts in our possession", said they would wait for the Indian government to clarify the matter as per diplomatic norms. A Saudi embassy official also disapproved of the way police was damaging a person and a country's reputation on the basis of mere charges made by a third person and said it was violative of the rights of the diplomat and his family. The diplomat, who has not been named, and his unknown friends and guests have been booked for raping, gang-raping two Nepali women while his wife and daughter have been booked for torturing the victims. Two Nepali women were on Monday evening "rescued" from an apartment flat on the fifth floor of Ambience Island Caitriona complex here. The victims were "rescued" after the intervention of the Nepalese embassy and with the help of an NGO Maiti India, police said. Balkrishan Pandey of Maiti India told IANS that another woman who was kept at the diplomat's apartment as a domestic help



managed to escape. The Nepali women were lured on pretext of all comforts and high salary for a job in Saudi Arabia by a woman in Nepal six months ago. "After keeping the duo for some time in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, both were brought to Gurgaon. The victims were raped and gang raped by the diplomat and his friends and guests," Assistant Commissioner of Police Rajesh Kumar told IANS. A senior Saudi embassy official, who by convention cannot be named, however, told IANS that the embassy had very different information on the alleged incident and did not accept that the senior diplomat involved was guilty of the alleged crimes. The official said the embassy was in touch with the Indian ministry of external affairs and would wait for the results of the investigations to be completed. He said the embassy disapproved of the way the police were giving information to media on the basis of charges that were yet to be substantiated. The police officer said a case against the diplomat and "unknown people" has been registered at the DLF-2 police station under sections of gang-rape (376 D), rape (376), unnatural sex (377) and some other sections of Indian Penal Code including 342, 323 and 120B. No arrests have been made so far.