SC: No passports to Brits accused of paedophilia

APPEAL AGAINST BRITISH NATIONALS: Maharashtra got has challenged the acquittal of British nationals by the Bombay High Court.

    

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the Mumbai Police not to release the passports of the two British nationals, who were acquitted in a case of paedophilia in July.

The court said the passports of Duncan Grant and Allan Waters should not be released till an appeal filed by the Child Helpline Foundation of Maharashtra is disposed of.

The Maharashtra government has challenged their acquittal by the Bombay High court, saying it'll be difficult to get them extradited once they leave the country.

In 2006 a lower court had jailed the two Royal British Naval officers for six years and fined them 20,000 British pounds. They were convicted on July 2008, for sexually abusing children. But the high court acquitted them for lack of evidence.

Lawyer of NGO Childline, Mahrukh Adenwala says, "We are very pleased at the way the Supreme Court reacted today and now at least we are quite sure that the state will take action to ensure that they do not leave the country. See, the Maharashtra government has already filed an appeal which was tagged on Friday alongwith an appeal of Childline India Foundation and my own appeal. Both these appeals will be heard together, three weeks later."

We were very hopeful that the High Court would give the judgement that we were looking for. All I can say is that we have an extremely strong case. Two boys have come forward and talked about the abuse they have undergone. And we hope that the Supreme Court will look at the matter differently than the High Court," she added.