PUDUCHERRY: In what seemed to be a case of extortion, four women students from the Netherlands were being detained by their so called guardians-an NGO that was supposed to facilitate their project work in India. What’s more, the students have alleged that they were even asked for sexual favours.Police on Thursday rescued the students-Zeynep Akyuz Esther Dirix, Lisbeth Pinckaers and Joyce Van de Meulen of Zuyd University, Netherlands-from a Thirubhuvanai home run by the NGO, Sojahur-India, after they managed to inform the authorities of their plight through a local contact. The students have lodged a complaint and 100-page document with Senior Superintendent of Police (Law and Order) B Srikanth, who has moved it to the police station and officials concerned for action. However, curiously, no action has yet been taken against the NGO officials.Netherlands embassy officials have been informed, the SSP said.In their complaint, the students said the NGO Sojahur-India had cheated them by charging them two payments of an amount of Euro 800 each for the project-related services, for which they had made an arrangement with the students’ university but failed to deliver.One of the staff of Sojahur-India, Remy Edwin, has been named in the police complaint, in which it says that he not only demanded money from the students and threatened they would not be permitted to leave the home if the money was not paid, he even asked them for sexual favours. The police complaint says Edwin “contacted one of us in an unprofessional way saying he wants to make love to her while he knew she was not interested”.The Non Government Organisation, meanwhile, has denied all charges. M P Manoharan of Sojahur-India refuted the allegations made in the complaint and said they had provided the students with all facilities. Remy Edwin too denied that he had approached the students with such requests for sexual favours.
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