American, accused of paedophilia, arrested in India

By IANS

Chennai : Police have arrested a 60-year-old American, wanted in his country for sexual offences against children, from the seaside town of Mahabalipuram near here.


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Alan Jay Horowitz, who had an Interpol alert against him, was arrested late Tuesday. The American consulate in Chennai had alerted the Tamil Nadu Police about his presence.

The Kancheepuram police tracked Horowitz to a hut in the resort town. He was remanded to custody by a court in Kancheepuram district Wednesday and has been kept in a prison at Puzhal on the outskirts of Chennai.

According to police, Horowitz was convicted for paedophilia in Maryland, US, in 1983. He has not committed any offence in India and will be sent back to the US, police said.

Horowitz is an ordained orthodox Rabbi and a child psychiatrist. The 1983 conviction was for unnatural sex with a 12-year-old patient.

He was again charged with sexually abusing children in 1991 and there are 41 pending cases against him, police here said.

Horowitz was on probation and jumped parole last June after serving 15 years in New York's Oneida Prison.

He is said to have fled the US, using a fake passport and travel documents, and arrived in India via Japan and Israel. Interpol has been tracking him for more than a year.

According to police, Horowitz had been to Hong Kong, Thailand and Sri Lanka, before coming to Bangalore two weeks ago.

"We had a red corner alert for Horowitz," Tamil Nadu Director General of Police D. Mukherjee told the media here.

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