Dutchman arrested after British woman stabbed to death on houseboat hotel in India

The woman, whose identity has not yet been confirmed, was 24 years old and had been staying on the New Beauty houseboat, one of hundreds of old British floating hotels on the side of Srinagar's celebrated Dal Lake, for 25 days.

The owner, G.M Shoda, said he and the victim had become friends and she was "like a daughter" to him.

The woman and the Dutch tourist were the only guests staying on the houseboat and had been sitting on the deck until midnight when she went to bed. Later, at around 2.30 in the morning, the owner's sons heard an argument and screams, and went to investigate. They said they saw the Dutch tourist leaving the houseboat in a traditional shikara rowing boat and that he capsized and swam to the shore. They then found the victim lying dead in a pool of blood in her room with multiple stab wounds.

Kashmir's Deputy Inspector-General, Afad ul-Mujtaba, told the Telegraph that a Dutch national, Richard De Wit, was arrested for the murder after police stopped a taxi in Qazi Gund, just under 50 miles from Srinagar, at around 4 am this morning.

Mr Mujtaba said reports that the victim had been raped were unconfirmed and that detectives would not know more until a post-mortem had been carried out. People convicted of rape and murder in India can face the death penalty. Last month India passed new tougher laws and sentences for sexual offences following the national outcry over the gang rape and murder of a 23 year old student in Delhi.

Since then two foreign tourists have been attacked, a Swiss woman who was gang-raped as she and her husband camped overnight during a cycling holiday in central India, and a British woman who jumped two floors from her Agra hotel room to flee an alleged sexual assault by the manager.

The police said the British victim and the Dutch suspect had not been friendly with each other and although they were both sitting on the houseboat deck last night [SAT], they had not spoken to each other. "The girl went to sleep at about 12 o'clock and the Dutch man was outside until 12.30am," Mr Mujtaba said. "After that everyone, including the houseboat owner and staff went to sleep. At around 2.30am, they [the owner and his son] heard some cries, possibly some quarrelling."

A knife was found near the victim's body and there was evidence that her room door had been forced open, police added.

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568301/s/2a65998a/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cnews0Cworldnews0Casia0Cindia0C997580A60CDutchman0Earrested0Eafter0EBritish0Ewoman0Estabbed0Eto0Edeath0Eon0Ehouseboat0Ehotel0Ein0EIndia0Bhtml/story01.htm

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