Indians in the US seek leniency for student facing terror charges

WASHINGTON: Indians in the US are rallying behind an incarcerated engineering student from Andhra Pradesh, charged with making terrorist threats with a knife and powdered sugar, seeking leniency for the 22-year-old.

Supporters of Sujith Venkatramolla have signed a petition to authorities claiming he was "a diligent Gold medallist student" who has "been struggling with chronic depression".

Venkatramolla allegedly walked into a building at the University of Missouri at Rolla on February 28 in the early hours waving a paper bag, holding a knife and saying he had a bomb and anthrax.

Campus police subdued Venkatramolla by shooting him with a stun gun. The white powdery substance turned out to be powdered sugar. No explosives were found.

The petitioners are asking for the case to be turned over to the Government of India so that he could be deported to face charges in his home state of Andhra Pradesh.

The petition, which they are sending to Missourie's Governor and Attorney General, the Mayor of Rolla, the US Attorney General and the Indian Ambassador in Washington, said that Venkatramolla comes from middle class background and his father passed away when he was in his eighth grade.

The family had to incur huge debts to send him for higher education in the US, it said.

Over 1,700 Indians have signed the petition so far.

Media reports say that Venkatramolla's mother Rajitha has written to the county prosecutor describing her struggles and the fact that her son came into depression soon after receiving his grades for the fall semester.

"My son could not cope with the pressures of studies in the US and was under constant stress... probably from the burden of expectations of relatives and friends back home in India," she wrote.

Venkatramolla's has been in jail since the time of his arrest but last week a judge reduced his original bond from USD 250,000 to USD 100,000.

He faces two counts of first-degree assault of a law enforcement officer and one count each of armed criminal action, resisting arrest, false report of a bomb threat and making terrorist threats.

Supporters of Venkatramolla hope to raise USD 10,000 required to bring him out of jail.

It is said that once freed, he will live in seclusion at a Hindu temple in St. Louis pending resolution of his legal case.

"It is heart-moving story; a diligent Gold medallist student is behind bars in the USA for an act he never imagined he would do in his lifetime.

"Like most other immigrants who make their way to the United States, Sujith had dreamed of living the 'American dream', going to the extent of borrowing a great deal of money to make his dream possible. But his dreams and his future have now been shattered by this one unfortunate incident," the petition said.