An Indian-American woman, Bindu Philips (44) has sought the help of U.S. lawmakers to get back her sons who were allegedly abducted by her ex-husband, Sunil Jacob, while on a trip to India. Ms. Philips and Mr. Jacob are from Kerala.
Ms. Philips testified before a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, along with several other parents of abducted children, requesting its 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. Ms. Philips, from Plainsboro in New Jersey, accused Mr. 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. Ms. Philips said he “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, she finally returned to the U.S. 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 said.
Ms. Philips said that since Mr. Jacob had not allowed her to communicate with her children, she had created a website 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 with my own beloved children,” she said.
Susan Jacobs, Special Adviser for Children’s Issues at the State Department, said the U.S. was committed to finding an amicable solution.
