Indian-origin men ‘rape Oz woman in car’

MELBOURNE - Two Indian-origin men sexually assaulted an Australian woman in car after a night out in Geelong, it has emerged.

The 30-year-old woman told detectives that one man tried to force her to kiss him while the other put his hand through a small tear in her jeans to assault her, reports the Age.

The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard the woman had recently moved to Geelong from suburban Melbourne, where she had heard of assaults on Indian students and thought checking on the welfare of one of her alleged attackers was “the right thing to do”.

Harprit Dijitsingh Sohal, of Broadmeadows and Shravan Kumar Alva Madhanthadi, of Glenroy, both face five charges: two of rape, one of indecent assault, one of false imprisonment and one of unlawful assault. Both have applied for bail.

Detective Senior Constable Alexandra West said that the woman saw Sohal sitting on the kerb with his head between his knees after she left the National Hotel about 3am on December 5.

She said the woman told Sohal she had previously travelled to India and a little later, the pair continued that conversation while sitting on a bench near McDonald’s.

A few minutes later, Madhanthadi sat on the woman’s other side and the conversation continued for up to 15 minutes, Senior Detective West said, although the woman was nervous.

The woman said she was thirsty and the two men told her they had bottles of water in their car and that she should follow them. As the woman got into the car, Sohal and Madhanthadi got in on either side of her and Madhanthadi tried to kiss her, Senior Detective West said.

“She wanted to get her legs out so she could kick, but could not seem to get them out or do anything but struggle and move around. She was moving her knees, trying to get Sohal to stop,” the detective told the court.

The woman said that both were in Australia on student visas that expired later this year. (ANI)