Buddhi’s father seeks Obama intervention to review son’s case

39-year-old Buddhi,who graduated from St Xavier college here and got a post-graduate degree in Maths from IIT-Bomaby has been in US jail since April 2006 for allegedly posting message on Internet chat boards exhorting Iraqis to avenge the deaths of their citizens.

In December 2005-January 2006,an Internet message appeared from an unknown source urging the Iraqis to avenge the death of 312,769 women and children in that country. That message was traced to the computer of Buddhi.

“As per the US law,he has the right to appeal but the court has not pronounced the sentence though the verdict that held him guilty was given on June 28,2007,” Subbarao said.

“I want the US President to follow the rule of law and allow Vikram who was a student of Purdue University in US to appeal to free himself and pursue his academic career,” he said. Even External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has described the case as “something fishy”,he said.

“I have written a letter to President of India Pratibha Patil to arrange for a three-minute audience with US President to explain my case personally,” Subbarao added.

Buddhi was picked up for interrogation and released on January 18,2006 by the US Secret Service,with a report that he was not a threat in any way. But a federal prosecution was launched against him in April 2006 under “the false charge that he threatened to kill former US President George W Bush and others,” Rao claimed.

The case went to trial,but crucial evidence was hidden from the jury by a “hostile” judge,and the verdict holding him guilty was given in June,2007,he said.

He is still in jail at the Texas Federal Bureau of Prisons. No sentence has been set and thus,no appeal can be filed,according to Rao.