Thaindian News

Los Angeles/Mumbai, Sept 1 (IBNS) Hours after Los Angeles Superior Court sentenced India-born fashion designer Anand Jon 59 years of imprisonment for sexually abusing teenage girls and women from 2002-2007, his sister Sanjana said he is ‘paying for being brown’.

“When Anand was being arrested in Beverly Hills, the cops of BHPD were calling him ‘You f-ing sand nigger’ over and over again, saying ‘How dare you come to our country and touch our white women’”, Sanjana told Times Now.

“Being brown in the US I did not know could be so bad. Till 9/11 it was different but after that, yes, it is a crime to be brown and you are guilty by colour…Jon is paying for being brown.”

Calling the trial and conviction a ‘complete a travesty of justice’, Sanjana said the entire procedure was a conspiracy against her brother.

“Because we proved beyond doubt in court that this was a conspiracy and these 59 counts came only when Anand’s company was getting funded by Wall Street. There were millions coming into the company and that is when all these allegations came forth,” she said.

She also pointed out that their family had defeated 43 counts out of 59.

“There is one count of alleged rape where rape kit is negative and you will see the papers that show actual medical facts - that it has no findings which means medically we proved that the girl is lying. On top of that, Anand passed the lie detected test while the woman refused to take it,” she told the news channel.

Jon was arrested March 2007 and convicted in November 2008 of 16 counts including rape, sexual battery and performing lewd acts on a child. Jon was found not guilty of four felonies, and jurors could not reach a verdict on three counts.

Prosecutors at Los Angeles Superior Court had accused him of preying on a string of girls and women aged between 14 and 21 over a six-year period from 2002 to 2007.

Nine women testified against Jon during his trial. Most of the designer’s victims were aspiring models lured into meetings with Jon and forced into sex, prosecutors said.

“Jon has showed no remorse for his actions,” Judge Wesley said. Jon also faces similar charges in New York and Texas where he has been indicted.

Anand Jon Alexander, 35, is a star designer whose clothes are worn by celebrities including Paris Hilton and Mary J. Blige. He has also featured on the television show ‘America’s Next Top Model’.