India | Three get death penalty for gang-raping Israeli tourist, killing male tourist in Hampi

An Israeli tourist and a Hampi homestay owner were raped, and another tourist from Odisha was killed by three men in Hampi last year. All three accused have been given the death penalty in the case.

Three men were given death sentence in connection with 2025 Hampi rape and murder case.

A court in Karnataka has handed down the death penalty to three men convicted in the horrific rape of a foreign tourist and a homestay owner and the murder of another visitor near Hampi in 2025.

The First Additional District and Sessions Court in Gangavathi had, on February 6, found the trio guilty. Pronouncing the sentence on Monday, Judge Sadananda Nagappa Naik awarded capital punishment to the three accused — Mallesh alias Handimall, Sai and Sharanappa.

The case dates back to the night of March 6, 2025, when a group of tourists had stepped out after dinner to go stargazing near Sanapur Lake, about 4 kilometres from the world heritage site.

The group comprised a 27-year-old Israeli woman, a 29-year-old homestay owner, and three men who hailed from the United States, Odisha and Maharashtra. They were sitting by the bank of the Tungabhadra canal, playing the guitar and listening to music, when three men arrived on a motorcycle.

According to the complaint later filed by the homestay owner, the bike-borne men first asked for directions to a petrol pump and then demanded money. When the group refused, the situation escalated.

The attackers assaulted the tourists and pushed the three men into the canal.

As the men struggled in the water, three of the accused raped the homestay owner, while another dragged the Israeli woman aside and sexually assaulted her. The assailants also robbed the victims of mobile phones and cash before fleeing.

Three of the male tourists managed to swim to safety and were hospitalised. However, the Odisha man drowned and his body was recovered the next morning, adding a charge of murder to the case.

The brutality of the crime, involving foreign nationals at a major tourist hub, had drawn sharp reactions from political leaders and renewed concerns about visitor safety. Police teams launched a manhunt soon after the incident, and the accused were arrested within days.

Eleven months after the incident, the three accused have been given capital punishment in the case.

Source: India Today, Staff, February 15, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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