A court in southern India sentenced three men to death after they were found guilty of raping two women, including an Israeli tourist, and killing a man during a violent attack last year in a heritage temple town.
The incident, which drew international condemnation, occurred on 6 March 2025 when a group of five people, including an American male tourist and an Israeli female tourist, were attacked near the Sanapur Lake in Hampi in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
The men raped the 27-year-old Israeli tourist and her 29-year-old Indian homestay host and pushed three male tourists into a canal. An American tourist, Daniel Pitas, 23, survived the attack, but a male tourist from Odisha was found dead the next day.
The district court in Koppal on Monday classified the case as “rarest of rare” due to the brutality involved.
While delivering the death sentence, the court stressed that crimes of such brutality, committed against both domestic and international tourists, merited the harshest punishment in order to uphold the rule of law and safeguard public safety.
The judge said the victims were targeted while enjoying a peaceful evening in a high-profile tourist zone.
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The three men – Mallesh alias Handi Malla, 22; Sai alias Chaitanya Sai, 21; and Sharanappa alias Sharanabasavaraj, 27 – were convicted on 6 February on charges of gang-rape, attempted murder, robbery, and other offences.
After announcing the guilty verdict earlier this month, the court sought reports on the social background, conduct inside jail, and psychological state of the three men, who previously had criminal records.
The group of tourists had been stargazing and camping near the Tungabhadra river at night when three men on a motorbike approached them and demanded money.
When the victims refused, the men turned violent, physically assaulting them, pushing the men into a canal and then sexually assaulting the women.
“Since the homestay operator did not know them, she told them they had no money. When the men repeatedly insisted, one of the male tourists from Odisha gave them 20 rupees (£0.16). After that, the three men allegedly started arguing and threatened to bash their heads with stones,” police said.
The attack renewed longstanding concerns over the safety of women, especially foreign tourists in India. Hampi is a Unesco World Heritage site, known for attracting backpackers with its spectacular remnants of monuments and temple complexes from the 14th-century Vijayanagara empire.
A police officer familiar with the details of the attack said the men behaved in an “inhuman manner” while assaulting the tourists that night.
The attack and the international attention prompted the Karnataka police to form six special teams. They arrested two of the accused within 48 hours, and the third was arrested within a week of the crime.
The attack came after similar incidents last year, including the rape of a tourist from Spain in Jharkhand and the rape and murder of a 28-year-old Irish tourist in Goa.
Reports of sexual assaults are rampant in India as police recorded 31,516 rape cases in 2022, a 20 per cent increase from 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Yet the actual figure is believed to be much higher due to lack of reporting caused by the stigma surrounding sexual violence in the country.
The death sentence is required to be upheld by the Karnataka High Court and is subject to appeal in Supreme Court.
