It is alleged that the specialist doctor carried out a sexual act on himself while in the water at Wolverhampton Swimming and Fitness Centre, Wednesfield, on May 22.

The public pool is a favourite with families and young children, and it is believed the venue was packed when Mr George allegedly carried out the offence.

Yuck and Blecch!

Predictably, the doctor claims that this was a misunderstanding .The doctor has since left England for India where he is being treated at a private clinic.

Really, how much lower can one sink?

Thoughts? Opinions?

Even Dr, ,Evil says one million dollars is not enough reparations for slavery
img: via Wiki

The Sabhnanis, who own an international perfumes business, were accused of holding two Indonesian women against their will and torturing them, in what has come to be known as the “Muttontown Slavery Case”. Last week, a judge ruled that the two victims were entitled to double the wages owed to them by the Sabhnanis.

A multi-millionaire Indian American couple, already sentenced to jail for virtually enslaving two Indonesian maids, has been ordered by a US court to pay nearly $1 million in back wages to the women.

The Sabhnanis, who run an international perfumes business, have been ordered to pay Samirah, who worked for them from Feb 2002 to May 2007, $620,744, while Enung, who worked at their house from Jan 2005 to May 2007 is owed $315,802.

And what kind of treatment were the victims subject to?

The women, who were brought as household helps from Indonesia, had testified in court that they were beaten with brooms and umbrellas, slashed with knives and forced to take cold water showers for perceived ”mistakes”.

You would think that for that kind of treatment even $1million seems like a small amount. Not, so says the Sabhnanis lawyer.

While the prosecutors had claimed that the actual wages amounted to $1.1 million, the Sabhnanis’ defence lawyers said that figure was vastly exaggerated and pared it down to $214,000.

Bargaining, even when guilty, desi ishtyle.

And where will the Sabhnanis get this million dollars from? From the sale of their home, thinks Judge Spatt.

Judge Spatt also said the federal government could seize not only the Sabhnanis’ house, but also an attached office of the couple’s multimillion-dollar perfume company. The estimate value of the home and office is $2 million.

Kind of optimistic, considering the state of the real estate market these days.

So what do our readers think? Is double wages enough compensation for slavery and torture?

Other posts on the “Muttontown Slavery Case” [1,2,3].

“The victim was not interested in marrying, nor remaining married to her husband,” the police report said, citing information authorities received from Rashid’s wife. “This was causing a great deal of friction between the victim and her father,” so much so that the two had not spoken in two months, the report said.

This one has been filed under “honor killing” which is a great misnomer - there is zero honor in the slaughter of innocents in the name of some undefinable , vaporous idea of “honor”. One sensible quote in the article:

“My immediate reaction was that this is an anomaly in the South Asian community,” Ajay Nair, associate dean of multicultural affairs at Columbia University, told CNN Tuesday. “Most South Asian-American families enjoy wonderful relationships within their families.”I

I think there’s ways that we can rationalize it and make sense of it, particularly in thinking about new immigrant communities in the U.S. and thinking about some of the struggles that they face and the generation gap and the cultural differences that children do face,” he said. “I think there are some issues there, but by and large, this isn’t a rampant problem within South Asian communities. What is a problem, I think, is domestic violence, and that cuts across all communities.”

Without minimizing the horror of a crime when a parent deems it fit to kill his offspring over a choice that she made about her own life , I’d like to point out the inevitable playing up of the “arranged marriage ” angle by the press.See this for example. This is unfortunate because it implies that arranged marriages are the cause of such heinous crimes, whereas the issue is far more complex and has more to do with antediluvian attitudes towards women and lack of cultural assimilation. Its sad because while simultaneously sweeping the real and terrifying aspects of domestic violence under the carpet, it vilifies the institution of arranged marriages. From what I have seen - though not having had an arranged marriage myself- the vast majority of them work. There is a difference between an “arranged ” marriage and a “forced” one- a distinction that unfortunately seems to escape most journalists.

Meanwhile in the annals of reality TV, we will soon get to see “Arranged Marriage” ( tip: Karthik via email) - a proposed reality TV show that - and I quote from the website here, plans to :

introduce America to an ancient practice that may have a great deal to teach our modern relationhips……

In my opinion, this is okay. If you can allow abominations shows like Tila Tequila’s Shot at Love and Flava Flavs messy attempts at finding love- why not a show on arranged marriages? This one actually seems to approach it from the viewpoint that the majority of these marriages work. It will follow four couples through the first year of their marriages - which would have been “arranged” by their close family and friends.

Maybe some good will come of the reality show.Maybe people will realize that deranged actions of abusers are not morally equivalent to marriages arranged by concerned families and friends.

The mind-boggling quote of the day comes from Chiman Rai’s defense lawyer:

“It is not necessary for you to kill Chiman Rai,” Samuel told jurors. “This was not a crime motivated by greed and while I know the prosecution disagrees with me, this was not a hate crime.
“He did it out of some perverted belief that it was in the best interest of his son.”

I defer to Runa’s post from last year on this case:

When a girl gets married in India, tradition dictates that she is welcomed to the in-laws house as an incarnation of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. The extended family, friends and neighbors greet her and shower her with gifts and blessings.

Chiman Rai apparently chose to conveniently ignore this beautiful aspect. He considered it a perceived stigma instead, to have a daughter-in-law from another caste/race, resulting in not only her death and his incarceration for life, but also deprived a kid, his own granddaughter, of a mother for life.

Please leave your comments and opinions in the space below and keep it clean.

Johann Bach moved to the Indian state of Goa a couple of years ago and was trying to sell a stolen piano when authorities caught up with him, according to a report in the Telegraph of Calcutta.

The capture occured Friday after Bach tried to elude police by jumping out of a taxi and running into the forest on the Goa-Karnataka border. He was later tracked down wandering in the forest. Reports said deportation and trial are likely, as Germany and India have an extradition treaty.(link)

The story further read: Bach advertised the piano in question for sale on the Internet. This was recognized by German authorities as one that was stolen during the War. Bach was in a taxi trying to get into Karnataka. Realizing that he was being tracked, he attempted to leave the cab and flee into the forest.

We at UD are attempting to verify this information and will post any updates.

Further analysis unfortunately seems to indicate that this new release was a prank. Some versions of the release stated that the German Intelligence agency involved is named “Perus Narkp” . For the anagram fans amongst our readers , it will not be too difficult to figure that one out. (link)

UPDATE 2: A hat tip to the guys behind this feat! You can read it in their own words here (Tip: Anantha via email)

UPDATE: CNN now reports that Varsha Sabhnani was sentenced to 11 yedars while Mahendra Sabhnani awaits sentencing today . (link)

Federal sentencing guidelines had recommended a range of 12 to 15 years in prison for Sabhnani, who was identified as the one who inflicted the abuse. In addition to prison, she will serve three years of probation and was fined $25,000.

“I just want to say that I love my children very much,” the defendant told the court as two of her grown children looked on. “I was brought to this Earth to help people who are in need.”

The defence attorney has some pretty unbeleivable stuff to say.In essence he blamed Sabhnani’s behavior on excessive weight loss - I kid you not

Defense attorney Jeffrey Hoffman said that 175 letters were submitted to the court detailing Sabhnani’s charitable acts around the world. He called her “a woman who spent a lifetime doing good deeds.”

Hoffman said that around 2004 or 2005, Sabhnani’s weight plummeted from 325 pounds to 135. “She did it by starving herself,” and that resulted in a chemical imbalance and significant malnourishment. “She had become a very different person.”

UPDATE 2: Mahender Sabhnani, the husband, was today sentenced to 31/2 years in prison .Once again, AP news rules prevent me from quoting anything- but you can read all about it here

The two accused
img: via Fox

According to the story, 18 year olds Omar Khan and Tanvir Singh, are being accused of the above crimes with Omar facing upto 38 years in prison and Tanvir upto 3 years.

County prosecutors allege Omar Khan, 18, of Coto de Caza, and Tanvir Singh, 18, of Ladera Ranch, broke into Tesoro High School in Las Flores to steal tests and change their own and others’ grades on the school computer network.

While Singh allegedly only tried doing it once, Khan apparently did it several times.

Khan’s been charged with 69 felony counts and could get more than 38 years in prison. Singh faces four counts and could wind up with three years.

Omar is being charged with “altering and stealing public records, computer fraud, burglary, identify theft and receiving stolen property and conspiracy” and Tanvir with “conspiracy, burglary, computer access and fraud and attempted altering of a public record”. Their actions are being viewed “very seriously” by the prosecutors.

“These students are not accused of just committing simple ‘Ferris Bueller’-type offenses,” Deputy District Attorney Chuck Lawhorn told the Register. “These are very serious crimes.”

The crimes seem very detailed, especially the ones alleged to be committed by Omar including stealing a master key to the school, and stealing teacher’s IDs and passwords to change his grades and other and stealing test. Tanvir allegedly got involved when he took Omar’s help for stealing a test.

Check out a series of text messages between the two (paraphrasing from the Fox article):

Tanvir: “Hey wana go to the school tonight”
Tanvir: “Come haha I need someone with balls there with me … I have a huge test on a book tomorrow I haven’t read.”
Omar: “Some pussies did a senior prank last night so its gonna b really risky.”
Tanvir: “We will go at like 7 so its not shady. Such a gay prank. Haha wow.”
Omar: “Ya wow, Call me when you want to go.”

As for Omar, he’d gotten involved in the first place because he was frustrated by his Cs and Ds and wanted to get into one of California’s prestigious colleges?

Granted this kind of criminal behavior is more of an anomaly than the norm, but after the post on the success of South Asian kids in the Spelling Bee, this one comes as a bucket of cold water on a wet dream. Just a guess, but both will most likely cite parental and peer pressure as a catalyst for their actions, which as we all know a lot of desi parents are notorious for. But breaking in and hacking their grades and that of others is going too far, they are affecting not only their careers but also that of innocent fellow students’. Still, given the nature of these crimes and the age of the perpetrators, 38 years seems a tad much.

What do our readers think? If there are any lawyers or people involved with the legal system, among our readers, I’ll be interested in hearing their thoughts also. Comments? Opinions? Fire away in the space below and keep it clean.

As discussed on UD earlier this year, Sudarshan was accused violating arms control laws by secretly trying to sell components for space vehicles, ballistic missiles and fighter jets to firms associated with India’s defense agencies [UD].