Saudi Diplomat in India Accused of Hiring Women as Sex-Slaves, Booked for Rape

NEW DELHI: A Saudi diplomat to India has been accused of raping two Nepalese women for close to four months at his Gurgaon residence. The women, a mother, and her 20 years old daughter were allegedly been bought for 0ne lakh rupees and sold to an agent and subsequently to the diplomat.

The police raided the diplomat’s Caitriona Towers, Ambience Lagoon apartment on Monday night after receiving a letter from Nepal Embassy which had received the tip-off from an NGO called Maiti Nepal India. There they found the women and rescued them. According to the victims, they had been hired as maids and had been taken to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for 15 days after that. During their stay there they did not face any exploitation, but once back in India they were continuously made to perform sex acts, including unnatural, and made to do house chores throughout the day and night. The women said they were kept hungry mostly and survived on biscuits and watery tea.

The diplomat’s wife has also been made an accused in the charge sheet since she was aware of the crime and also beaten up the women. The accused have been booked under, sections 376 D (gangrape), 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural offence), 342 (wrongful confinement), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 323 (causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC. No arrests have been made as yet.

Talking to Indian Express, Saudi Ambassador Saud Mohammad Alsati refused to believe the charges and said, “This is completely false. We would not like to comment any further since the case is under investigation by the Indian police.”

Victims told the police that they were made to have with sex many of diplomat’s friends also, at one point 5-6 men in one night. They were also taken to Nainital and Agra and there too they were ravaged.

Nepal Envoy told the media that they are talking to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) about the case and since it’s a very sensitive case they will wait till the investigation is complete before raising explicit demands with the Saudi Embassy.

He was also asked whether they are going to ask MEA to proclaim the accused a ‘persona non grata’, he answered that they will rather wait for the results as charge sheet has just been filed. According to the medical done of the women, it has been established that rape has been committed.

The diplomat is believed to be a senior official at the secretary level.

The NGO was informed about the women being used as sex-slaves by a maid hired at the diplomat’s house, who was astonished to find victims in a miserable state, witnessing which, ran away from job in just three days. She then called up the NGO.

As per Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, diplomats to other countries cannot be arrested by the host nation but by their own countries. ‘Persona non grata’, which simply means “not welcome”, is the stringent action a host nation can impose against an offending diplomat.