Taking strong exception to radio-tagging by US authorities of scores of Indian students duped by a "sham" university in California, India today described it as an "inhuman act" and demanded severe action against those responsible.
"We demand that the US government initiate severe action against those officials responsible for this inhuman act. Indian students are not criminals. The radio collars should immediately be removed," external affairs minister SM Krishna told reporters in Bangalore.
The students, mostly from Andhra Pradesh, are facing the prospect of deportation as US authorities last week shut down the Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, a major suburb in San Francisco Bay Area, on charges of a massive immigration fraud.
The university is said to have 1,555 students, and as many as 95% of these students are Indian nationals.
"The ministry will extend all help to the students. The parents need not worry since the matter has been taken up with appropriate authorities," Krishna said.
The government will also provide suitable assistance to the affected students if they wished to return home, he said.
Some of the Indian students, who had landed themselves in the dubious university, were forced to wear radio collars around their ankles to enable the US authorities keep track of their movements.
The affected students are now frantically knocking at the doors of colleges begging for admission in their desperate attempt to save their academic careers and avoid deportation.
Following a raid at the university last week, US federal authorities swooped down on its students for questioning and interrogation.
Immigration attorneys and Indian-American community leaders, who have been helping these students, said that scores of them had been detained and released on bond and many of them installed with intensive supervision appearance programme or radio tags.
