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Swiss couple's remand extended for 8 days

BOMBAY (AFP) -- Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Usha Iyer at Bombay's Esplanade court allowed police on Friday to detain for another eight days the elderly Swiss couple held on charges of paedophilia and child pornography.

"We have been given custody of the couple till December 30. We told the court we need them in custody to put together all the missing links in the case," Senior Inspector Shirish Inamdar told AFP.

Wilhelm Albin Marty, 59, and his wife Loshiar Mary Marty, 56, were arrested on Saturday last at a north Bombay luxury hotel and charged with kidnapping and sexually molesting children.

Inamdar said the couple had been coming to Bombay every year for the past 10 years. A city-based voluntary organisation tipped them off about their activities.

Police said the couple used to lure slum children by offering them expensive gifts and toys. They were then bathed and allegedly told to perform various sexual acts.

Police alleged that the couple filmed the sexual acts and sold them to various Internet Web sites publishing pornography.

Inamdar said police had "ample proof" against the couple in the form of computer software, circumstantial evidence and witnesses. "We are uncovering a big network the couple had put in place in the city. We believe they had ensnared about 50 children in Bombay in the past 10 years," he said.

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