Police step up efforts to get fugitive French pedophile to Odisha

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Puri, July 2:

With Puri SP Anoop Sahoo handing over all documents and an affidavit to Interpol Nodal Officer for India and IG Jogesh Bahadur Khurania, the chances of getting back the French pedophile Mathieu Furic to Odisha has brightened.

Furic turned an absconder after he was booked for allegedly indulging in unnatural sex with children on November 26 last year in a desolate spot near Penthakata along the sea beach in the temple town of Puri.

Furic has been arrested on June 23 by the Interpol in Windhoek, the Namibian capital while he was travelling from South Africa to Namibia and sent to judicial custody by a magisterial court in Windhoek.

The Namibian government had warned that unless Puri Sea Beach police station submits requisite documents and evidence within July 4 it will be forced to release Furic as per international law.

Accordingly, the state Home department has handed over all documents pertaining to the case to Khurania, the Interpol Nodal Officer for India.

The Namibian government is expected to handover Furic to the Indian government after examining the documents provided by India.

It may be recalled here that James Federic Gorman a US national from Topeka city in Kansas State had lodged a complaint with Sea Beach police station here on December 2 last year accusing Mathieu Furic (48) of indulging in unnatural sex with some children from a slum in Sri Vihar area of Penthakatha in Puri on November 26.

Gorman had also said in his complaint that he was assaulted by Furic when he opposed his depraved activities.

The police had lodged a case after Gorman handed over the footage of a recorded conversation Furic had with the children to them as well as brought the matter to the attention of the Puri SP Anup Sahoo.

Later, the  IIC of the Sea beach police station Pravash Chandra Sahoo launched an investigation into the matter and while the Odisha police kept a watch at the Bhubaneswar airport to nab Furic , he managed to fly to Doha by a Qatar Airlines flight from Delhi on December 2 last year.

Left with no option, the police was forced to issue a look-out notice on December 4 and sought help of the CBI and Interpol in the case.

After Furic was nabbed in Namibia on June 23 the Interpol had sought all papers against Furic from the Odisha government’s Home department.