Eight people were arrested on Monday for allegedly harassing a group of French tourists and attacking locals accompanying them at Lakhaniadari in Mirzapur. The locals were attacked on Sunday for opposing the accused who were sexually harassing the women in the tourist group from France.
Mirzapur SP Ashish Tiwari said that three accused were arrested immediately after the incident while the leader of the group involved in attacking the tourists and four others were arrested on Monday. An FIR was lodged against them under various IPC sections for rioting, endangering human life, voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult and sexual harassment.
Riya Dutta of Varanasi, her uncle Nitin Dey and a sister had accompanied a group of six French tourists, including four women, to Lakhaniadari fountain for sightseeing on Sunday. When they were strolling around the fountain, eight men from Sarnath in Varanasi started harassing the French women. When Riya and Nitin protested, a heated exchange between them and the accused erupted.
When Riya and other members of the group were going to board their vehicle, the accused attacked her and Nitin with sticks and soft drink bottles. Both suffered injuries. The French men also got injured. On getting the information, cops reached the spot, arrested the three and Riya and Nitin were taken to hospital. Tiwari said a man had recorded the attack on his cellphone and submitted the clip to police. He claimed that the foreigners had not been attacked. In her FIR, Riya also didn’t mention about the attack on French tourists.
On November 3, a German tourist had a brawl with a youth at Robertsganj railway station in Sonbhadra district. Police caught the youth but later the German national was also arrested for travelling on fake documents. During investigation, it came to light that in Himachal, a case was lodged against the German national and his passport and other documents were deposited in court at Kullu.