Attack on Swiss Couple near Agra: Sushma Seeks Report

NEW DELHI:
The Uttar Pradesh Police late on Wednesday arrested a suspect for an attack on a Swiss tourist couple who were chased and hit with sticks and stones in the ancient city of Fatehpur Sikri, 40km from Agra, on Sunday afternoon.
Quentin Jeremy Clerc, 24, fractured his skull and suffered nerve damage while his girlfriend Marie Droz, also 24, was left with broken bones in the attack that brings into focus security of foreign tourists. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said she had sought a report from the state government and a team from the ministry would reach out to the couple from Lausanne, undergoing treatment in a Delhi hospital.
The assault has the tourism industry worried even as the external affairs ministry officials visited the couple at Delhi’s AIIMS, where the couple is undergoing treatment. “Such incidents will scare tourists away. As it is there is so much controversy around the Taj. Hopefully Yogiji would do something about it,” a tourist operator said.
Police said four accused were identified and one of them was arrested on the Rajasthan-Uttar Pradesh border.
Chandra Prakash, ADG-Crime, said the Agra police registered an FIR in Fatehpur Sikri. “The investigation is on and teams have been constituted to nab the remaining culprits who are absconding,” he said in Lucknow.
He also said action might be taken against officials at Fatehpur Sikri police station for not alerting seniors about the assault on the foreign nationals.
The arrest in the case came hours before chief minister Yogi Adityanath reached Agra for a visit to Taj Mahal, days after he and his party colleagues tried to talk down the significance of the Mughal monument, one of most popular tourist destinations of the country and a huge money-spinner.
Fatehpur Sikri police station in-charge Pradeep Kumar said the couple was walking along a train track when locals assaulted them. The arrested suspect is the brother of the main accused.
Media reports said a group of four men followed the couple and tried to take selfies with Droz. Soon, the harassment turned into a full blown assault. The couple was taken to a local health centre before being shifted to Delhi.
“Initially they did not want to file a complaint and the case was made out by the police on its own,” Kumar said.
Police have been left surprised by the “unusual attack” and are not sure if it is the work of lapkas, or local goons who are known to get aggressive with tourists if they don’t part with money.
“We are busy gathering facts. It’s very unusual,” a police officer said. Though not as popular as the Taj but Fatehpur Sikri, which was the capital of the Mughal empire between 1572 and 1585 during the reign of Emperor Akbar, gets its fair share of tourists.
In 2014, a German woman said she was molested by a hotel manager in Agra. In 2007, two Japanese tourists were gang-raped in the city.