India: Guesthouse owner and rapist Parbat Singh free after 3 months
From The Timesonline
August 5, 2008
Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent
Parbat Singh was jailed for 21 years for the brutal attack
An Indian guesthouse owner who was convicted of raping a British tourist in the northern state of Rajasthan has been released three months after he was given a 21-year sentence, The Times has learnt.
Parbat Singh, 32, owner of the Pardeshi guesthouse and restaurant in the city of Udaipur, has resumed running his business, which is popular among tourists from Britain and other countries.
“The solid professionalism along with the nature skills of the owners assures the overall safety,” says its business card. “Lean back and enjoy.”
The release of Singh last week raises fresh concerns about the safety of women tourists in India after the rape and murder of the British girl Scarlett Keeling, 15, in Goa in February.
Singh, also known as Rana, was jailed on April 30 for forcing his way into a 40-year-old British woman's room at the Pardeshi on December 23 and raping her with such ferocity that she passed out and suffered bleeding and convulsions for days.
Unlike many foreign rape victims in India, the freelance journalist stayed in the country and endured harassment from police, medical staff and even her own lawyers to secure her attacker's conviction before returning to Britain.
However, on July 29 a court in the city of Jodhpur released Singh on bail pending an appeal, according to Sandeep Mehta, his lawyer, and a court official.
Bail is usually never granted for violent offenders and Singh could remain free for years given the inefficiency of India's courts, which have a backlog of 29.2 million cases.
The British woman, who has asked not to be identified, is convinced that Singh's supporters paid bribes to secure his release. “This gives a whole new meaning to ‘incredible India',” she said. “I can only believe that the judicial system is totally corrupt if a man like this can be let free. He is a convicted rapist and he is running a guesthouse. No woman is safe there.”
The Pardeshi guesthouse, also known as the Nayan Palace, is situated at 60 Hanuman Gap, next to the Hotel Sarovar in Udaipur.
The victim accused officials of deliberately failing to inform her of Singh's bail application and appeal because she had refused to pay bribes. She said that a lawyer had asked her to pay bribes of more than 25,000 rupees (£300) to a government legal officer during Singh's trial, as well as gifts to all the court officials.
Singh's lawyer said that he was “very surprised” that the victim had not been represented at the bail hearing. The victim said that she was trying to find a new lawyer to fight Singh's bail and appeal. She also appealed to Renuka Chowdhury, the Minister for Women, and Ambika Soni, the Minister of Tourism, to intervene in the case.
Senior Indian officials have expressed concern that India's tourist industry has been tarnished by a series of sexual assaults on foreigners, including several Britons, in the past year.
The National Crime Records Bureau says that rape is the fastest-growing crime in India, with 19,348 cases reported in 2006, a 22 per cent increase on 2005.
Women's rights groups say that tens of thousands more are not reported and that the conviction rate, although rising slowly, averages only 27 per cent.
Indian authorities say that they have set up fast-track courts and a tourist police force to help to protect the more than five million foreigners expected to visit India this year.
Singh's victim said that when she tried to contact the tourist police, they did not appear to exist, and that her treatment by local authorities was almost as traumatic as the rape itself. “Now I feel I have to start all over again,” she said. “This monster's life has gone back to normal, while mine will never be the same again.”
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