NRI Fashion designer Anand Jon: Villain or victim

Shishir Srivastava, 09 January 2008, Wednesday

Famous Indians abroad, like Arun Jain of Polaris in Malaysia or Phaneesh Murthy, an ex-Infy guy at California, have faced trauma due to racial discrimination or sexual abuse allegations. Anand Jon is the latest awaiting Indian government mediation.

ANAND JON has been in solitary confinement in a Los Angeles jail for months. Is he guilty of the sexual abuse allegations that he is facing? Or is he a victim of professional jealousy? The Indian government should step in to help.

Anand Jon Alexander, 33-year-old Indian-born fashion designer, who appeared on "America’s Top Model" in 2003 and was named by Newsweek as a person to watch in 2007, has dressed such celebrities as Paris Hilton, Ivanka Trump, Bruce Springsteen and Janet Jackson. A graduate of the Parsons School of Design, he launched his own label in 1999. Jon was arrested in March 2007 in Beverly Hills on rape and related charges. On November 20, 2007, Alexander was indicted in New York on charges of rape and sexual assault of nine women. A 40-count indictment charges him with rape, aggravated sex abuse and related crimes that stem from assaults from November 2002 through September 2006.

Anand’s sister has sought help from the government of India in this connection. Claiming that her brother was innocent, Sanjana Jon has asked the centre to help her absolve her brother of all allegations. Sanjana Jon has been awarded an “International Rising Star” award in Canada and she spearheaded the International Miss Universe AIDS awareness tour to Asia.

Sanjana Jon met Vayalar Ravi, the minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and sought his help. Ravi asked her to furnish details and file a petition as he looked into the matter. Meanwhile, Jon is charged with a total of 59 counts involving 18 victims, all with ties to the fashion industry and between the ages of 14 and 27. The charges levied against him range from rape to lewd acts against children and possession of child pornography. If convicted, Jon would well be spending the rest of his life in jail. Currently he has furnished a $1.3 million bond for his bail.

Will the Indian government step in to help?

Can India intervene in the judicial process of another country?

Overseas Indian Affairs minister Vayalar Ravi’s statement on Friday, where he said he would persuade the external affairs ministry to take up the case of New York-based fashion designer Anand Jon.

Ravi said that the number of complaints cropping up against Jon in New York and Florida seemed to suggest the designer was ’’framed’’.

His mother Shashi Abraham goes on to say, “My son is innocent. Anand has made India proud all these years. And he is not a person with a criminal record. They were all aggressive and powerful girls and are saying that this happened in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. And they were still hanging around with him. Does that make any sense?

We need Government’s help and they must step in to get our son out of jail. They should ask the US government to give the citizen a fair trial’’. Is Anand being demonised because of his success?

Sanjana Jon says, “’’This demonisation is (happening) because he broke into an industry where Americans find difficult to break into.”

Her lawyer Majid Memon too said there was a possibility that ’’Anand’s phenomenal success raised a few eyebrows. They could not digest it and ’’connived’’ to implicate him in false cases. Racial discrimination could be a factor’’.

Memon, who has taken up several high profile briefs including defending music composer Nadeem in England, has said that they will approach the Prime Minister’s Office and ministry of External Affairs. "My first duty will be to approach the US attorneys, who till now had been defending him," he said. They will also approach the human rights commissions in India and in the US, besides other international human rights organisation.

There seems to be more to this case than what meets the eye. Complaints started pouring in after Wall Street Anand evaluated Anand at $10 million and more investors were going to pump in money into his company. There is absolutely no evidence to the allegations that he is facing but still Anand has been kept in solitary confinement and is chained in the Los Angeles jail.

Newsweek had picked this man as someone to watch out with Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama on the cover. But since then he has been suffering in the jail based on numerous allegations that surfaced once he had convinced investors to invest in his company. Why did all these allegations come up suddenly? Was it a case of professional jealousy? Was it racial discrimination? These questions will be answered when the hearing off the case begins. Till then it will be tough to determine whether Anand is a villain or just a victim.