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Agence France-Presse

An Indian court has issued death sentences against three men convicted of raping an Israeli tourist and another woman, and killing a man near a Unesco World Heritage site.
The men had attacked a group of five people, which included the Israeli and another tourist, an American man, as they were stargazing in a village in south India last year, according to media reports at the time.
They were in the area of Hampi, which is popular with visitors, known for rocky hillocks and sprawling temple ruins.
The three men raped the Israeli tourist and her homestay host, and pushed the three others in the group – all men – into a canal, reports said.
One of them, an Indian man from Odisha state, was found dead the following day.


A district court judge handed the three convicted assailants the death sentence on Monday over the murder charge, as well as prison terms for other offences including rape, according to a court document.
Their crime fell under “the rarest of rare category”, NDTV news network quoted the judge as saying.
The sentencing must be ratified by the Karnataka state’s high court, and can still be appealed.
“Two of the accused were arrested within 24 hours of the crime,” police superintendent Ram Arasiddi told the Times of India. We had gathered 101 witnesses and 84 articles for DNA testing. It was a challenging and sensitive case.”
A cousin of the dead victim thanked the regional government and police for acting swiftly to solve the case. “We hail the court verdict. It was delivered in less than a year,” he told the newspaper.
The case has highlighted chronic violence against women in the world’s most populous country, where 29,670 rapes were reported in 2023, according to the latest available official data.
India imposes the death penalty by hanging, although it is rarely carried out in practice.
The last executions in India were in March 2020, when four men convicted of the 2012 gang rape and murder of a woman on a New Delhi bus were hanged, in a case that sparked huge nationwide protests.
Additional reporting by SCMP’s Asia desk


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The men had attacked a group of five people – including two tourists – who were stargazing near a Unesco World Heritage site in Hampi


The men had attacked a group of five people – including two tourists – who were stargazing near a Unesco World Heritage site in Hampi.


Indian court hands death penalty to 3 for tourist rape, murder near Unesco heritage site

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The men had attacked a group of five people – including two tourists – who were stargazing near a Unesco World Heritage site in Hampi

The men had attacked a group of five people – including two tourists – who were stargazing near a Unesco World Heritage site in Hampi