The Chandigarh Police on Saturday registered a case after a woman of British nationality alleged that she had been raped by a staff member of the spa of a leading hotel where she was staying.
The victim, who arrived in Chandigarh on December 19 and was staying in the hotel with a companion, alleged that she was raped by the spa staff member when she went for a foot spa service.
A 28-year-old masseur of a five-star hotel in IT Park, Chandigarh, was booked for raping a 54-year-old UK national staying in the hotel, police said on Saturday.
In her complaint to the police on December 27, the woman said that she had gone for a foot spa where the accused raped her on December 20. The accused is absconding and belongs to Bijnore in Uttar Pradesh.
Police said the woman had come to Chandigarh on a tourist visa on December 19 with her male partner. The woman told the police that the accused, while giving her massage in the spa, touched her inappropriately and without her consent. After giving her partner a massage, she said, the accused raped her.
The police said that the woman had complained to the hotel authorities the same day but lodged a formal complaint only after returning from trip to Shimla on December 27. Sources in the police said that initially the woman was indecisive on lodging a formal complaint.
The woman was visiting India to learn more about the local customs here.
The police said that the hotel’s authorities sacked the accused the same day. When contacted, the hotel authorities were tight-lipped.
“Efforts are on to trace the accused. The medical examination of the complainant has been done,” Chandigarh senior superintendent of police Nilambari Jagdale said. The complainant’s statement before the magistrate has already been recorded.
The case has been registered under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the IT Park police station.
Sources said the police have summoned the hotel authorities to find out why they did not inform them about the incident the day the woman complained to them.
