[Reader-list] FWD: Vikram Buddhi, has been incarcerated since April 2006 in various prisons in the USA.

[Iram Ghufran]

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Subject:
Fwd: Vikram Buddhi, has been incarcerated since April 2006 in various 
prisons in the USA. Urgent - we need to take this forward
From:
"Sujata & Samantak" <kokopeli at gmail.com>
Date:
Tue, 4 Aug 2009 22:26:31 +0530

To:
SARAI Reader List <reader-list at sarai.net>


Dear All,
This was sent to me by a friend and I thought you might be interested.
Apologies for intruding.
Samantak


Friends,
I am sending you the following story which I am not sure was ever 
brought to your notice or not. Only last week we, came to know about 
this and were pretty shocked by the state of affairs. Both Vikram and 
his father are really being harassed and tortured by the US 
administration, to say the least. There is enough evidence to prove that 
the trial is absolutely unfair and is a miscarriage of justice, 
something which we want individuals and organisations across India, USA 
and the world to take up immediately.

We are planning to meet with the Indian authorities to push our 
government to enquire from the US Govt what is happening with the Indian 
student. However, inorder to assure justice and human rights for Vikram 
and Dr. Subbarao, it is necessary that all of us do our best to ring 
this up with governments, media and international human rights 
organisations.

Please forward widely
http://www.petitiononline.com/freevb/petition.html
Visit also: http://freevb.blogspot.com

Regards and in the hope that many you will take it up immediately,

Vijayan MJ
Delhi Forum

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Sherebanu Frosh* <sherryfrosh at gmail.com 
<mailto:sherryfrosh at gmail.com>>

Please forward widely

http://www.petitiononline.com/freevb/petition.html

Dear All,

In a stunning case of miscarried justice, an Indian graduate student at 
Purdue Univ. USA, Vikram Buddhi, has been incarcerated since April 2006 
in various prisons in the USA. His crime is the alleged posting on 
internet chat boards of exhortations to Iraqis to avenge the deaths of 
their citizens.

A federal prosecution has been launched against him in April 2006 under 
the false charge that he threatened to kill George W. Bush and others. 
In June 2007 he was denied fair trial with the presiding Trial Judge 
refusing to instruct the Jury on the applicable law and even threatening 
the Defense Attorney that he (the Judge) would embarrass the Defense 
Attorney if the Defense Attorney attempted to link the evidence on 
record with the applicable law during the closing address of the Defense 
Attorney to the Jury. Consequently on June 28, 2007, the Jury being 
ignorant of the applicable law pronounced the Defendant (Vikram Buddhi) 
guilty. However the sentencing has not taken place so far, as a result 
the appeal could not be filed up till now.

Below are facts of the case, as well as the backgrounds of Vikram Buddhi 
and his father, Dr. Buddhi Kota Subbarao

BACKGROUND:

-In December 2005- January 2006, an Internet message appeared from an 
unknown source urging the people of Iraq to avenge the death of 312,769 
women and children in Iraq. That message was traced to the computer of 
Vikram Buddhi, a graduate student at Purdue University, Indiana, US.
-Vikram Buddhi was picked up for interrogation and released on January 
18, 2006 by the U.S. Secret Service, complete with a report that he was 
not a threat in any way.
-Four months later, he was mysteriously picked up again and jailed. The 
case went to trial, crucial evidence was hidden from the jury by a 
hostile judge, and a guilty verdict was returned on June 25, 2007.
-He is still in jail. No sentence has been set; and thus, no appeal can 
be filed.

MEANWHILE, HIS FATHER:

-Dr. Kota Subbarao Buddhi went to the US on an emergency visa on June 
25, 2006 to attend his son's trial. The trial was deflected to June 26, 
2007 at which point Dr. Buddhi applied for an extension. This was denied 
(and the appeals process is ongoing)
-On a technicality, Dr. Buddhi was not allowed to attend the trial for 
which he has been living in Lafayette, Indiana and forgoing all income.
-In August 2007, Dr. Buddhi's passport was confiscated. He was told it 
would be returned to him if he voluntarily left the country, although 
that would mean that he could not return to the US for ten years. He was 
held in three different jails and released after three days of 
humiliating treatment.
-His confiscated passport means that he cannot return to India for a 
visit without abandoning his son in prison

*Vikram was a National Science Talent Scholar during his student days in 
India. He graduated in mathematics with M.Sc degree from the Indian 
Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, stood first in the class and 
received silver medal from IIT. Thereafter he worked for a year at the 
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bombay and then joined 
the mathematics department of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 
in the year 1996. *At Purdue he received MS degree in mathematics and 
thereafter has been pursuing Ph.D degrees simultaneously in pure and 
applied mathematics. At Purdue he received two times Best Teaching Award 
from the Department of Mathematics.

*Vikram's father, Dr. Buddhi is a former Indian Navy Captain with Ph.D 
from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in nuclear technology. He 
is also an advocate of Supreme Court of India, having degree in law from 
Bombay University. He has represented successfully in public interest 
matters before Bombay High Court taken up by the social organization 
‘Citizens For A Just Society’ *founded by Dr. Usha Mehta, noted 
Gandhian, Freedom Fighter and Padma Vibhushan, during her life time and 
also subsequently.
His article in countercurrents: 
http://www.countercurrents.org/kotasubbarao210409.htm

DEMANDS (as enumerated by Dr. Buddhi to the Government of India):

*--The Government of India send a formal communication to the President 
of the United States Barack Obama, bringing to his notice the need to 
respect the rule of law while dealing with resident Indians in the 
United States, and to allow reasonable opportunity to fight for justice, 
if necessary up to the US Supreme Court.
--Appropriate action may be taken to get Dr. Buddhi's Passport returned 
to him.
--Urgent appropriate action may be taken to prevent the US Authorities 
in their attempts to deport Dr. Buddhi to India.
--Appropriate action may be taken to allow multiple entry US Visa for 
Dr. Buddhi so that he could attend to his commitments in India and also 
would be able to help his son in the United States to overcome the 
miscarriage of justice mounted on him in the federal case he is facing 
in the United States.
*

http://www.petitiononline.com/freevb/petition.html




-- 
Regards,

Vijayan MJ

Delhi Forum
Emails: vijayan at delhiforum.net <mailto:vijayan at delhiforum.net>, 
delhiforum at delhiforum.net <mailto:delhiforum at delhiforum.net>