Jailed Pascal: Masked & dangerous

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Five days after Pascal Mazurier was accused of raping his three year-old daughter, the Bengaluru based French consular official was arrested on Tuesday, 24 hours after the Ministry of External Affairs clarified to city police that the accused did not enjoy diplomatic immunity. Produced before the 8th ACMM judge at his residence in Koramangala, Mazurier was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.

Mazurier underwent a medical test, and his blood samples were sent to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory for DNA tests. Police have seized his service and regular passports. Meanwhile, the MEA has asserted that Mazurier will face “due punishment.” Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said, “This is the worst kind of crime. We deeply abhor this...he will get his due punishment through the courts”.

‘Rapist’ father faces public anger, slapped
Pascal Mazurier, who was brought to the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital for medical tests after his arrest, got a taste of public anger when a bystander managed to slap him while others tried to pull off the cloth he had used to cover his face. All this happened right in the presence of police personnel who were escorting him.

The High Grounds police have registered a rape case against Mazurier, the chief of Joint Chancellerie at the French consulate here, based on a complaint filed by his wife Suja Jones Mazurier (37), a native of Ernakulam in Kerala, on June 14. On Tuesday, a team of officials from the French consulate met city police commissioner Mr Jyothiprakash Mirji at his office and extended full co-operation to the police investigation.

Mr Mirji told the media that the Union government had clarified on Monday night that Mr Mazurier did not enjoy diplomatic immunity, paving the way for his arrest.From the hospital, he was taken to the High Grounds police station to record his statement.

“We are waiting for the reports from the doctors. Pascal has confessed about certain details which cannot be disclosed,” the commissioner added. Ms Suja Jones Mazurier had registered a formal complaint on June 14 with the High Grounds police station accusing her 39-year-old husband of raping their three-year-and-nine-month-old daughter.

She had also sent a requisition through her advocate to Union Home minister P. Chidambaram and External Affairs minister S. M. Krishna, requesting that her husband be restrained from leaving the country till legal proceedings are completed and that under no circumstances should he be allowed custody of their children, who are also French nationals. She also wanted the French Embassy to be directed to help her with legal and financial assistance, as she was currently unemployed and has to take care of the children.