Male’, Maldives – Maldives Police Service (MPS) has stated that there was no solid evidence affirming that a rape occurred at one resort in the Maldives and that it was only forcible touching.
Police said that after news that a Maldivian woman was allegedly raped at a resort circulated through media outlets, they conducted an investigation- which brought up no evidence that would lead them to believe this actually occured.
However, Police noted that a Maldivian female intern working at the resort claimed that an Indian worker at the resort attempted to touch her without consent, and that the matter is now being investigated by Family and Child Protection Services.
“Before the news circulated in Media, this was not repprted to Police. And when Police finally received the report, the accused worker had left the Maldives”, noted Police.
Police have advised media to not reveal names of the abused in sexual harassment and rape cases so as to not victimize them further.
A similar case had also occurred in June 2020 where a Kenyan woman was allegedly raped on a safari but was later told by Police that it was a sexual assault and not a rape. The safari rape case made international headlines after a Kenyan woman was sexually assaulted on board a safari which was docked in the lagoon of Hulhumale’, sometime during late June 2020. Police arrested two 39 year old males from the crime scene, however released both citing that there was no probable cause to keep the pair in custody.
Public outrage sparked following the incident which was later followed by news that one of the perpetrators was the husband of an MP, as well as a relative of the President, calling them “royal people.” With this, protestors took to the streets of Male’ calling for justice to be served and against impunity.
The identities of the two arrested have not been disclosed by police, who maintain that it cannot be revealed during the course of the investigation, despite having done so in similar cases previously.
