CHENNAI: “I cannot wait to get back to India,” internationally acclaimed fashion designer Anand Jon, currently serving a 59-year prison sentence in New York on multiple charges of sexual assault, told his supporters in the city through a phone call.This brief conversation was organised at an informal gathering planned by the designer’s mother Shashi Abraham and sister Sanjana Jon seeking help to earn justice for Anand, whom they claimed was innocent.A resident of Chennai for a few years, he last visited the city before leaving for the US to pursue a degree in arts. The designer continues to enjoy the support of several friends and family members here, including Mrs Y G Parthasarathy, the principal of his school Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan and actor Suhasini Mani Ratnam, who also turned up at the event. According to his principal, who is currently dean and director of the PSBB group of schools, “Anand was a fine young man with a keen interest in arts and was very friendly in school and among the brightest boys there.” Suhasini also recalled the ‘kind’ and ‘philosophical’ person, for whom she hosted a party during his visit to India. Often breaking into sobs, Sanjana Jon said the modelling industry ‘fillers’ who complained against him had claimed that the incident happened several years before the complaint was lodged. “If he really abused them, why did they travel with him to different places,” she wanted to know. Problems started cropping up for the designer only after the Wall Street funded his label in 2006, drawing unnecessary attention, she claimed. Jon’s mother went on to charge that though her son had passed the lie detector test and no traces of rape were found after inquiry with one of the complainants, Jessie, he was now languishing in prison as he was a victim of racism. Meanwhile, Sanjana claimed that her brother was not being given any medical attention despite his recent bad health.
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