Indian-American mom seeks Congress help to reunite with kids

Washington, March 29

Battling overwhelming odds to reunite with her twin children, an Indian-American mother has turned to US lawmakers seeking their help to get her sons back who were allegedly “abducted” by her ex-husband while on a trip to India.

Bindu Philips, 44, testified before a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee with several other parents of abducted children, requesting their help to reunite with her children, Albert Philip Jacob and Alfred William Jacob, now aged 14.

“I respectfully request that you, the members of the Congress, help me to make my voice heard in a way that shall be meaningful and allow me to be reunited with my children who need the love and nurturing of their mother,” she said.

Philips, from Plainsboro in New Jersey, accused her husband Sunil Jacob of "violently" disrupting her world in December 2008, when he "orchestrated the kidnapping of the children during a vacation to India."

"Please help me to end this nightmare that Sunil Jacob has created for my family," she said. Both Sunil and Philips are from Kerala.

Philips said Sunil "pressed me to agree to a family vacation to India during the children's winter break" when he "very cruelly separated" her from her children with no means to communicate with them.

"I would like to point out that Sunil Jacob's plan to kidnap the children and sequester them in India out of my reach was not a decision that was quickly or lightly reached," she told the subcommittee.

Unable to communicate with the children, Philips finally returned to the US four months later on April 9, 2009.

"I literally came home to an empty house. They took everything, leaving me with not even a single photograph of my children," she accused.

Philips said that since Jacob has not allowed her to communicate with her children she has created a web site to "send my love."

"The Superior Court of New Jersey awarded me sole legal and residential custody of the children in December 2009 and I am not able to see or communicate to my own beloved children,' she told the subcommittee.

The subcommittee was reviewing the Obama administration's implementation of the Goldman Act to Return abducted American Children, at a hearing last week.

Susan Jacobs, Special Adviser for Children's Issues at the State Department, said the US was committed to find a amicable solution.

"We will do everything we can to resolve all the cases, to help every left-behind parent," Jacobs said. "You have my commitment." — PTI