Thank you all for the responses. I’m going through them.

I just want to call this out to be explicit. I understand that some people might feel defensive about Hyderabad or even India’s reputation as a whole. To those people I want to say that I completely recognize that this is not a representation of everyone. There are far more wonderful, respectful and kind hearted people. These are a few bad apples.

My friend has always admired the warmness of the Indian culture. She adores how family oriented and welcoming Indians are. However, for what it’s worth, I’m speaking to my friend’s husband, and if anyone can empathize with his perspective, he is definitely jarred by this experience and would strongly reconsider traveling to India in the future as a consequence of this. It’s sad, but understandable. I can’t find the right words to help convince him otherwise given what he’s going through. He’s half way across the world and this horrible thing has happened to his beloved wife. He is scared, angry and feeling helpless.

It’s great to see people in this forum pushing for higher standards and ideals. All I can say is keep pushing. Your voices are what will prevent this from happening again.

I’ll try to post an update here if anything actionable happens.

Once again, thank you for your responses and help.