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India can’t intervene in Anand Jon’s case: Ahamed

By IANS

New Delhi : The Indian government will not intervene in criminal cases against Indian designer Anand Jon, who faces a slew of charges related to sexual assault and molestation in the US, said E. Ahamed, minister of state for external affairs.

“Anand’s mother has spoken to me over telephone, seeking the government intervention. I have clarified that normally there cannot be a government-to-government talks on this,” Ahamed told IANS here.

But the minister said the Indian consulates in the US would assist the family to carry out the legal proceedings to free the designer.

“I have advised her to represent the matter to the concerned consulate general or the embassy in Washington. They will take appropriate steps,” he said.

Jon, an Indian citizen jailed in Los Angeles since June 2007, is facing charges of rape and molestation of 30 women in several American states.

Ahamed explained that the ministry of external affairs could not intervene in such issues. “One has to go through the legal process in that country.”

“Whenever there is a matter involving Indian citizens, the missions will assist them in the legal proceedings in whatever way possible,” he said.

Jon’s sister Sanjana had approached Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi seeking the government’s help in defending him, and wanted to create public awareness about his plight as she believed he was unfairly targeted.

Sanjana claims that Anand was “being demonised” because of his success in the US fashion industry.

Ravi has assured that he would persuade the external affairs ministry to take up Jon’s case. He has said it seemed from the multiplicity of new cases cropping up in New York and Florida that the designer was being “framed”.