‘New evidence of Sri Lanka war crimes’

COLOMBO — A global human rights monitor said Friday it had fresh evidence of possible war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the final phase of the government’s war against Tamil Tiger rebels.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it had examined over 200 photos taken on the front lines in early 2009 by a soldier from the Sri Lankan Air Mobile Brigade and had new witness accounts of troops shelling civilians.

Among the photos was a set of images which first showed a political activist with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) captured by the security forces and then showed him dead with a head injury.

“While Human Rights Watch cannot conclusively determine that the man was summarily executed in custody, the available evidence indicates that a full investigation is warranted,” the rights group said.

It accused Sri Lanka of consistently failing to probe allegations of rights abuses and urged the international community to insist on an independent investigation as demanded by the United Nations and many others.

“Witnesses told HRW about three other incidents in late April and early May 2009 of government forces shelling civilians, mainly women and children, who were standing in food distribution lines.

“The witnesses also described LTTE recruitment of children and LTTE attacks on civilians attempting to escape the war zone,” the group said.

The report came days after the Brussels-based International Crisis Group also said it had fresh evidence of war crimes and urged the UN and Sri Lanka’s aid donors to press for a probe.

Sri Lanka this week marked the first anniversary of the defeat of the LTTE, who had fought for a Tamil homeland since 1972.

The UN has reported that 7,000 civilians were killed and many more wounded in final four months of fighting last year.

On Monday, President Mahinda Rajapakse named eight members to sit on a “reconciliation commission” set up to study the last stages of the war and to recommend ways to avoid a return to ethnic conflict.

Archbishop asks Jeyapaul to go face probe in US

UDHAGAMANDALAM/CHENNAI: Roman Catholic priest Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, facing charges of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Minnesota, was today asked by the Archbishop of Madras to return to the US for further investigations.

As the Diocese of Udhagamandalam, the home Diocese of Jeypaul which oversees the priest of Indian origin, said it is probing the matter in detail, the Archbishop of Madras Rev Fr M Chinnappa said he has spoken to the Bishop of Ootacamund today to take action against the priest. Jeyapaul is currently staying in the hill town in Tamil Nadu.

“I have asked the Bishop of Ooty to comply with the demands of the case. Jeyapaul must return to the US if necessary for further investigations. He has to oblige. There is no way out,” Chinnappa said in Chennai.

Prosecutors in Minnesota yesterday said they were trying to extradite 55-year-old Jeyapaul. Jeyapaul has denied the sexual abuse allegations and reported to have said he has no plans to return to the US to face the courts there.

In a statement handed over to reporters, who had gone to meet Jeyapaul in Udhagamandalam, Bishop Fr. Amulraj of the Diocese said the matter has already been referred to the Catholic Bishops Conference of India(CBCI), the highest Catholic Organistaion in India for necessary direction.

Amulraj earlier said Jeyapaul had gone to meet his advocate to Chennai regarding the cases, which came to limelight through the press.

In the statement, Amulraj stated that it was true that the said priest was working in the Diocese of Crookstone in the State of Minnesota in the US from September 2004 to August 2005.

“Suddenly he had to rush back to India to see his ailing mother and he never returned to US since then,” Amulraj said.

“In the meantime some sexual abuse cases connected to Fr Jeyapaul emerged and we conducted an enquiry into the matter. As the above allegations could not be proved beyond doubt, he was placed under the direct supervision of the Bishop.

Now the same allegations have come up to limelight through the press, we are studying the matter in detail,” he said.

People in and around the area are tightlipped about the presence of Jeyapaul either in the Bishop’s house or in the Nilgiris, since he was instrumental in providing jobs, including temporary ones, to the poor an needy in 12 schools run by the Diocese, a worker in one of the schools, on the condition of anonymity, said.

Father Babu Joseph of the CBCI said, “he(Jeyapaul) will certainly cooperate with the civil authorities (in US) inquiring into the matter in case there is further need for him to go to the US.”

“We are taking the allegations against him(Jeyapaul) seriously,” Joseph said, adding “already some administrative actions have been taken against him.”

“He has not been assigned any parish or any pastor work. On the contrary he has been asked to stay in the Bishop’s house and help out in his office work…He has been kept away from children and people,” he added.

Indian priest accused of abuse in US won’t fight extradition

NEW DELHI: A Roman Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting a teenage parishioner in Minnesota said on Tuesday he would willingly leave his native India and try to clear his name in the courts if the United States
 tried to extradite him.

Meanwhile, the bishop who oversees the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul said he had overruled a Vatican recommendation that the accused priest be removed from the priesthood and applied his own lesser punishment.

“Unless guilt is proved, we cannot take any strong action,” said the Most Rev. A. Almaraj of the Diocese of Ooty.

In a separate case, a church official confirmed on Tuesday that a priest convicted of fondling a 12-year-old altar girl in New York more than a decade ago had returned home to India where he still served as a priest.

The Rev. Francis X. Nelson was sentenced to four months in prison in 2003 in connection with his role as a visiting priest at a church in Brooklyn. His victim testified that Nelson showed up at her grandmother’s apartment uninvited and groped her.

Nelson however denied he was the same priest who had served in New York and hung up. However, his bishop, Rev. Peter Remigius, confirmed that Nelson had returned to India after serving his jail term and continued to work as a priest in the bishop’s office in his home diocese of Kottar in southern India.

“His conviction was finished, and he has finished his term,” Remigius said. “He is not in charge of any parish … he is helping people who are alcoholic.”

Remigius said Nelson had already returned to Kottar when he took over as bishop in 2007. He was not aware of any correspondence between the Vatican and his predecessor, the Most Rev. Leon A. Tharmaraj, regarding whether Nelson should be removed from the priesthood following his conviction. Tharmaraj died in 2007.

The revelation came a day after critics of the Catholic Church highlighted Jeyapaul’s case as another example of what they said is a practice of protecting child-molesting priests from the law. Jeyapaul, who denied the accusations, was one of many foreign priests brought to help fill shortages in US parishes. Last year, about one-quarter of the newly ordained priests in the United States were foreign-born, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

Jeyapaul, 55, came to Minnesota in 2004 and was assigned to work at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Greenbush, a town of fewer than 1,000 people just south of the Canadian border. In 2005, he went to India to visit his ailing mother.

While he was in India, he was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old girl, and Bishop Victor Balke of the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, told Jeyapaul not to come back or he would go to the police. Jeyapaul was later charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old female parishioner.

Balke also notified the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the top office in the Vatican that was formerly headed by Pope Benedict XVI and handles all abuse cases involving priests.

The Vatican said officials thought Jeyapaul should be removed from the priesthood, but under church law, the decision was up to the local bishop in India. Almaraj held his own canonical trial and sentenced Jeyapaul to spend a year in a monastery.

“He didn’t want to leave the priesthood, so then we took this administrative process,” Almaraj said. “He is accused. If it is proved he is guilty, then the necessary action will be taken with the guidelines from the Vatican.”

In a May 2006 letter, a Vatican official said Jeyapaul’s bishop in India had been instructed to monitor him “so that he does not constitute a risk to minors and does not create scandal.”

Vatican officials said they cooperated with efforts to extradite him to the US – even providing authorities with his exact location in India. Almaraj had said that there had been no discussion of Jeyapaul returning to the United States to face the charges, but he said Tuesday that in light of the very public criticism of the case he should go back.

“It is his duty to prove his innocence,” he said. In a brief press statement later in the day, Almaraj said Jeyapaul’s case would be referred to the Catholic Bishops Conference of India for further action.

Jeyapaul, who continues to work in the diocese office handling paperwork for schools, said he would not put up a fight if the United States tried to extradite him.

“I am ready to go because I am innocent. I am ready to prove I did not do any wrong,” he said.

Lisa Hanson, the prosecutor in northern Minnesota’s Roseau County, said her office has been working with the U.S. Justice Department to extradite Jeyapaul.

“He’s charged with serious felonies here in this country,” Hanson said. “We want justice for the victim here and we want to do whatever we can to protect potential future victims everywhere.”

Officials at India’s Foreign Ministry were not available to discuss whether the US asked for Jeyapaul’s extradition.

Jeyapaul said his accusers falsely targeted him to get money from the Minnesota diocese, and he fought back against the Vatican’s recommendation that he no longer be a priest.

“I explained to the Vatican that I am not guilty, so I do not want to leave the priesthood,” he said.

An attorney for the alleged victim in the Minnesota case, Jeff Anderson, demanded Jeyapaul be suspended and returned to the U.S.

“Everyone knew there was a serious problem, but they chose not to ask and they chose not to tell,” Anderson said.

The Vatican has denounced such accusations and has blamed the media for what it calls a smear campaign against the Pope and his advisers.

South Delhi godman busted for sex racket

NEW DELHI: From earning a meagre Rs 2,000 to raking in a princely Rs 5 lakh every month, Shiv Murti Dwivedi alias Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot Wale (39) has come a long way in the past 22 years. Dwivedi, a self-styled godman, was arrested by south district police on Friday for operating a high-profile sex racket. It involved former airhostesses and students.

Starting as a security guard at a five-star hotel at Nehru Place in 1988, he landed in the middle of a prostitution racket in his quest for quick riches. He was first arrested in Lajpat Nagar in 1997 for running a prostitution racket with a massage parlour as a facade.

Dwivedi had himself worked at a massage parlour in the same area in 1990 where he was earning a monthly salary of Rs 3000. He also used to get Rs 20 for every massage. Here he came in contact with pimps and had soon picked up tricks of the trade. Within a few months, Dwivedi had started his own massage parlour during which he came in contact with pimps like jailed Kanwaljeet and Sonu Punjaban to whom he even supplied call girls.

After his arrest, he changed tack, turning to Shirdi Sai Baba and meditation. He used to meditate at a Badarpur temple and soon attracted a string of followers. With their help, he bought land in Khanpur’s C-block in 2000.

“Dwivedi had more than a lakh devotees and in 2002 bought another plot of land in Khanpur where he built a three-storey house which has nearly 14 rooms,” said a senior police officer. The temple had CCTVs installed inside with the control room in his private chamer. He even built a tunnel inside the temple.

Dwivedi, according to the cops, has garnered assets worth several crores in the past 12 years. Besides a 20-acre plot in Chitrakoot where he was building a hospital and a temple and the temple and house in Delhi, Dwivedi had also rented three government flats in different areas of south Delhi. He used two of these for running his racket while one was used as a temple rest house.

DCP (south) HGS Dhaliwal said, “Dwivedi was also arrested in a stolen property case in 1998. He called himself Ichchadhari Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot and claimed to be a disciple of Sai Baba.” Police said he also ran a security agency at Khanpur.

On Saturday when Times City visited the temple in Khanpur, all the flats were locked. Locals said their complaints to the cops had gone unheard all these years and the Baba and his cohorts have been threatening them. “They always had politicians and businessmen visiting them,” said Rajendra Kumar, a resident of the area.

The police say Dwivedi organised several pravachans and satsangs involving politicians. A couple of prominent politicians have, meanwhile, denied any links with Dwivedi, saying they knew him only as a disciple of Sai Baba.

Dwivedi had recently delivered a sermon in North Avenue which was attended by several prominent MPs and MLAs. The racket was busted when the police received a complaint regarding his activities. The cops found that he had floated a website. A decoy customer was sent and a deal stuck after which the police nabbed him and six women.

Woman murdered in broad daylight

CHENNAI: A 45-year-old woman was murdered in her apartment at Ashok Nagar around 2pm on Tuesday. Police said there was no apparent sign of robbery. Kala Subramanian, the wife of an auditor, had returned from a gym around 1.30pm. She was found dead in her workout gear — a track suit and a T-shirt — on the third floor of an apartment located on the corner of 92nd Street and 18th Avenue junction in Ashok Nagar.
A neighbour told the police that he heard some noise from Kala’s house at 1.45pm. After some time, he saw a man wearing a dark shirt and trousers leaving the place. Since there was no further noise from the apartment, the neighbour said he informed a sweeper about it. The sweeper, who went up to the apartment, found the door ajar. She found Kala lying dead in the hall in a pool of blood.

Security guards in neighbouring apartments also said they had noticed a man wearing a black shirt walking with a knife on 18th Avenue.

A sniffer dog was brought in, and it ran along the length of 92nd Street and then to 18th Avenue, but stopped at the end of the road.

Two picked up for Ashok Nagar murder

CHENNAI: The KK Nagar police have picked up a gym instructor in connection with the murder of Kala Subramanian (45) in her third floor apartment on Ashok Nagar 18th Avenue on Tuesday.
Police suspect that the trainer, at whose gym Kala was a member, could be behind the murder. Kala was stabbed by an unidentified man after she returned from her gym around 1.30pm on Tuesday.

KK Nagar inspector R Mahendran said two men had been picked up for questioning. “We have not got any breakthrough yet,” he said.

Police said the gym trainer, who was thrown out of the gym following an alleged affair he had with a member, used to frequent Kala’s house. Police sources said they would take the suspects for an identification parade.

Shopaholic NRI VP of US firm in soup over $4.5m fraud

WASHINGTON: She was with an American corporation that made the Koss stereo headphones for nearly 18 years and worked her way up becoming vice-president of finance; she earned a six-figure salary, was the wife of a well-

heeled physician, and they owned a million-dollar suburban home. She was an adjunct professor at a well-known university and a pillar of local civil scene, supporting local charity events and helping the poor. Sujata Sachdeva’s life defined immigrant-Indians’ success in the United States.

Yet, last week, in a case that had the American corporate world aghast, Sachdeva, 46, stood accused of embezzling up to $4.5 million from Milwaukee-based Koss Corporation. She spent most of the money at high-end stores, buying expensive clothing and accessories.

How could she, you ask? Although the sum involved is small beer by modern American corporate standards, it’s her likely defence that has everyone slack-jawed: it’s ‘oniomania’ or simply, an addiction to shopping.

According to a criminal complaint last week, Sachdeva spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at boutique stores in and around Milwaukee over the last two years, buying expensive items some of which she did not even unpack fully, much less use. The spending spree included $1.3 million at a store called Valentia and $600,000 each at Au Courant and Zita.

Her urge to splurge came to light when she put the tab on her American Express card and paid it off by transferring money from accounts of Koss Corporation, where she literally held the purse strings. American Express executives reportedly contacted the CEO of Koss and told him that Sachdeva was paying down her balances with large wire transfers from a Koss bank account. Koss CEO Michael Koss then personally went to Sachdeva’s office and found many American Express credit card statements and several large piles of women’s clothing with attached price tags, some for more than $2,000.

Confronted by FBI agents at her Mequon home last Monday, Sachdeva acknowledged she had bought clothing, jewellery and other personal items with money she diverted from Koss Corp, according to local media reports.

She said she carried out the scheme on her own, directing her assistant to make the fraudulent wire transfers. Sachdeva apparently said she concealed the transfers by falsifying the balance in Koss’ bank account.

While Sachdeva’s spending extended over two years, the fraudulent wire transfers occurred over just three months last fall, according to the complaint. Because of Sachdeva’s shenanigans and her position as VP finance, who signed the company’s financial statements, Koss, a publicly traded firm, has had to halt trading till its books are re-examined. Some reports suggest Sachdeva’s embezzlement may go further back in the company’s history and may run up to $20 million.

A loss of $4.5 million could be huge for Koss, which, despite its brand name, is a relatively small company with annual revenues of less than $40 million and only around 75 employees. For the Indian community, the story is a salutary reminder that its widely-chronicled success is spotted with a few odd contretemps.

Koss executive accused of embezzling more than $4.5 million

A longtime financial executive with Koss Corp. was accused Monday of embezzling more than $4.5 million from the Milwaukee company and using the money to pay for shopping sprees at upscale stores.

Sujata Sachdeva, vice president of finance at Koss since 1992 and an active participant in Milwaukee’s civic scene, was charged with wire fraud, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Jacobs, prosecutor in the case. She appeared in federal court late Monday and was released on an unsecured bond, Jacobs said.

Over the past two years, Sachdeva is accused of using embezzled money to pay credit card charges for pricey jewelry, high-end women’s clothing and expensive household items, Jacobs said, citing the criminal complaint.

Authorities say her bills paid with Koss funds included $1.3 million in clothing from a single store in Mequon, $130,000 in jewelry and $600,000 from a bridal store in Milwaukee, Jacobs said.

FBI agents arrested Sachdeva on Monday, and Jacobs said she allowed agents to search her Mequon home. There and at her office, Jacobs said, agents found a number of clothing items, some with price tags still on them. Some of the items cost $2,000 apiece, he said.

Earlier Monday, the Nasdaq stock exchange halted trading in Koss shares at the company’s request. Shares last traded Monday at $5.51, down from an adjusted 52-week high of $7.89 in mid-April. The stock recently split.

The maker of stereo headphones said in a brief statement that the request to halt trading followed its discovery of “unauthorized transactions” and its suspension of Sachdeva without pay.

The firm said its board has appointed a special committee of independent directors to internally investigate the transactions and determine their effect, if any, on Koss’ financial statements.

As secretary of the corporation, Sachdeva signs those statements, as does Michael J. Koss, whose titles include chief executive officer and chief financial officer.

The amount of money that Sachdeva is accused of stealing over two years is huge for a firm the size of Koss Corp.

In the fiscal year ended June 30, the company reported making $2 million on $38.2 million in sales. The firm reported a $566,000 profit in its most recent quarter, ended Sept. 30.

Sachdeva is on the board of trustees of Cardinal Stritch University and the board of directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee, and formerly was on the board of the Skylight Opera Theatre.

She has appeared several times in recent years at charity events for various local organizations.

Property records indicate she has shared ownership in the Mequon home with Ramesh C. Sachdeva, a pediatrician and a vice president at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

Ramesh Sachdeva also is a Marquette University Law School graduate and an adjunct professor there.

Sujata Sachdeva, who is in her mid-40s, was paid $173,734 by Koss Corp. in total compensation in fiscal 2009 and $206,462 in fiscal 2008, company filings show.

She could not be reached for comment Monday.

Suspect identified in kidnapping of Phoenix girl

PHOENIX – When Phoenix police officer Mike Burns pulled near a brown pickup he suspected the two people inside were a kidnapper and his 5-year-old victim. When the truck raced off, he was sure.

“There was no doubt in my mind,” Burns told reporters on Saturday, several hours after the little girl was rescued. “If he disappears, we may not get her back.”

Determined not to let the truck out of his sight, the patrolman set out on a Christmas night car chase through the streets of north Phoenix that ended after 10 minutes in the arrest of 45-year-old Larry Jon Ladwig.

The frightened girl was taken to a police facility that aids young victims of crime, where it was determined she had been molested. The girl was treated and is back home with her family, police Sgt. Andy Hill said Saturday.

Ladwig was booked into jail on charges of kidnapping, sexual molestation of a child, aggravated assault of a police officer and felony flight. It’s unclear whether Ladwig has a lawyer, and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request to interview him.

Hill said statistics show that if police don’t recover children abducted by strangers within the first several hours, “chances are slim of recovering them alive.”

“We really did have a Christmas miracle,” he said.

The girl was rescued at about 9:30 p.m. Friday, more than seven hours after police allege that Ladwig kidnapped her while she was playing outside a Phoenix apartment building.

The Associated Press is not reporting the girl’s name because she may be the victim of a sex crime. The AP had named the girl after her abduction and an Amber alert was issued.

When Burns’ spotted Ladwig’s pickup, he alerted the force. Officers put spike strips across the road several blocks away that punctured Ladwig’s tires, causing him to crash on the roadside.

Ladwig took off on foot but was caught and arrested a block away after a brief struggle during which Hill said he punched an officer in the face.

“It makes you feel good,” Burns said of his part in the girl’s rescue. “It takes a while to soak in.”

Police received the call that the girl had been taken at about 2:15 p.m. An Amber Alert was issued, and authorities began combing the area on foot, by car and with helicopters.

Hill said the child had been playing in a common area at the apartment complex with her two sisters, ages 7 and 9, when a man parked his brown pickup in a nearby parking lot and walked over to them carrying a camera.

He said the man violently pulled down the 7-year-old’s pants, took a photo of her, then grabbed the 5-year-old and threw her into the truck through a window.

“That’s pretty doggone violent,” Hill said. “He’s a weapon himself … (The girl) has got a lot to go through now. She’s not unscarred from this, obviously in a number of ways. She’s got a long road ahead of her.”

After the kidnapping, the 5-year-old’s older sister pounded for help on the door of a neighbor, who called police.

The three sisters live with an aunt, who has legal custody of them, Hill said. The girls’ parents live separately out of state.

mom of killed boy violated adoption rules

The mother of a 5-year-old Paterson boy accidentally shot to death by his 6-year-old brother last weekend violated adoption rules by not telling officials her adult son _ who authorities say owned the gun _ had moved back into her house, according to a report by the state’s child services agency.

The gun in Sunday night’s shooting belonged to 23-year-old Jalik Jones, police have said. Jones, a convicted felon, was charged this week with reckless manslaughter and weapons violations for allegedly owning the illegally bought .380-caliber handgun that he kept in a bedroom he shared with 5-year-old Daron Mayes.

Daron and his 6-year-old brother were watching television Sunday when they found the gun, police said. It fired once, hitting Daron in the back of the head, and he died a short time later at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson.

According to a report the state’s Department of Children and Families released this week, Daron’s mother, identified in news reports as Margaret Mayes, finalized the adoption of Daron and two other children at the end of October. They joined two of Mayes’ biological children in the home.

The report faults Mayes for not telling the Division of Youth and Family Services that Jones had moved back into the house, saying she “placed Daron and her other minor children at risk after violating her adoption agreement by not notifying DYFS another adult had moved in the home prior to Daron’s adoption finalization.”

Since the shooting, Mayes’ other four children have been placed with a relative, according to the report. They include two girls aged 3 and 9, the 6-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy.

Kate Bernyk, a spokeswoman for DYFS, said Thursday that prospective adoptive parents are required to list any other adults that live in their home so that the agency can interview them and conduct a background check.

Jones served about five months in state prison for theft this year and was released in July. It was not known when he moved into Mayes’ house.

Bernyk said that because the adoption was finalized, Mayes has the same rights as a biological parent. She said even though the state removed the children after the shooting, DYFS would make try to have the children placed back in the home.

“Our goal is always reunification,” she said.

Police have not charged Mayes. Several phone numbers listed under her name in Paterson were disconnected Thursday. It was not known if Jones had retained an attorney, and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office did not return a phone message Thursday seeking comment.

Authorities have said Jones was not home at the time of the shooting.

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