National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma on Sunday slammed a US-based writer for defaming India on social media in the context of a Spanish woman gangraped in Dumka. David Josef Volodzko, the writer, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, and said when he was living in India for several years, he witnessed an unprecedented level of sexual aggression like nowhere else. The author recounted incidents of how a stranger woman once wanted to sleep on his bed during a train ride because an Indian man licked her foot.

Commenting on the long post of the writer on how unsafe India is for solo women travellers, NCW chief Rekha Sharma asked whether any of the cases that he mentioned in his post was reported to the police. “If not then you are totally an irresponsible person. Writing only on social media and defaming whole country is not good choice,” Rekha Sharma wrote.

“I love India. It is and always will be one of my favorite places in the world. But I have advised female friends who asked me not to travel there alone. This is a real problem in Indian society that warrants more attention and that I hope will improve in time,” the Seattle-based writer added as he recounted an incident when he introduced a female friend to a young Indian man and “instead of shaking her hand, he groped her breast”.

As David Josef’s post on India went viral, he said Half my replies call me racist for caring about rape in India while the other half tell me I’m right and therefore India is worthless

A Spanish woman travelling along with her husband from West Bengal to Nepal was allegedly raped by seven men in Dumka, Jharkhand. The woman, 30, is a Spanish national and her husband, 64, is a Brazilian national. The two were touring South Asia on a motorcycle and already covered Pakistan and Bangladesh. They were on their way to Bihar and then Nepal. As they reached Dumka, the couple set up a tent in the forest of Kunji Basti where seven men attacked them. The husband was thrashed while the woman was gangraped. The men then fled with their belongings. A video of the two narrating the crime has been shared widely on social media where they alleged that the main motive of the accused was to rape the woman.

The woman took to Instagram and in a video shared the horror. “They have beaten us and robbed us although not many things because what they wanted was to rape me,” she said.

While the incident drew shock and outrage, the National Commission for Women condemned the gangrape and wrote a letter to the DGP to expedite the investigation into the matter.