US engineer held for rape attempt in Bangalore

BANGALORE, INDIA: Police have arrested Alfred Lary, an American working with Electronic Enterprises Corporation as an engineer for weather radars, for allegedly attempting to rape a 32-year-old English woman.

The woman, hailing from Berkshire in the UK, is working with Infosys. The alleged rape attempt took place at Le Meridian Hotel after dinner on Tuesday.

Police officials said that the 52-year-old Lary came to Bangalore on April 7 and was staying at the Le Meridian hotel.

Lary has been sent to judicial custody till April 23 and the American Embassy has been informed about the issue.

The police have seized Lary’s passport and other documents. Interestingly, the accused is showing no signs of repentance. He reportedly told the police during interrogation that everything would have been fine if she had agreed to cooperate and if there was “understanding”.

Voice your concern: Is Bangalore safe for women?

“It is very unfortunate that there was no understanding. There would have been no such complications if she had understood my intentions,” he reportedly told the police.

Second in a week

This is the second similar incident involving foreigners in the more than 1,100 years-old city within a week.

A 38-year-old Filipino woman, working as a nurse in the UK, accused the receptionist of the service apartment on Millers Road of trying to molest her on the night of April 4. She was in the city reportedly to meet a Delhi-based friend.

In December 2007 a Delhi-based woman tourist alleged that she was gang-raped in the city. The 26-year-old woman went to the DCP (Crime), CCB branch office along with a news reporter and cameras of a TV channel on December 10 and filed the complaint, which she withdrew five days later.

Pedophilia and psychopaths

In July, 2007, 55-year-old Ramesh was arrested on charges of molesting minor girls. The accused was running an orphanage, Karnataka State Human Rights Trust, from his residence in Krishna Layout.

Hulimavu police arrested the accused on complaints from some of the inmates, all girls aged 10 and above.

In may be recalled that Pratibha Srikant Murthy, a 24-year-old employee with HP GlobalSoft, was raped and killed in December 2005.

Shiv Kumar, the accused, is currently undergoing trial in this case.

(Is Bangalore losing the safe city tag, especially when women are concerned? Post your comments and incidents you know of. Alternatively, you can mail to cmn@cybermedia.co.in).