A MAN HAS been sentenced to seven years in jail for the rape of an Irish woman in India in 2013.
The Times of India reports that 40-year-old Sujoy Mitra was convicted on Friday of the rape of the now 25-year-old woman before he was sentenced over the weekend.
The woman met the accused in a bar in Kolkata before she was drugged and taken back to his residence where she was raped.
It’s understood that the woman was in India to volunteer at the Mother Teresa Missionaries of Charity.
The trial heard from a total of 23 witnesses with the Irish victim giving evidence via a video link from the Indian Embassy in Ireland.
The woman gave evidence at the embassy after defence counsel in the Indian court insisted it be delivered from an “official address”.
The decision to allow the woman to give evidence from abroad is being hailed as a landmark ruling which may allow tourists secure justice in India after travelling through.
“It can probably open a new path for foreigners to seek justice without taking the trouble of travelling,” a prosecutor said, according to the report.
The Department of Foreign Affairs provides specific travel advice to women travelling in India, saying that they should “use caution”.
“Recent sexual attacks against female visitors in tourist areas and cities show that foreign women are at risk,” the advice states.
“Women travellers often receive unwanted attention in the form of verbal and physical harassment by individuals or groups of men.”
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