Just Another Life?

Vikram S. Buddhi has spent 30 months in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. And the famed US justice system thinks it’s alright.

Vikram S. Buddhi has spent 30 months in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. And the famed US justice system thinks it’s alright.

The Subbarao family has been waiting for closure for more than two years now, and it seems they’ll have to wait longer. The United States District Court Northern District of Indiana was supposed to sentence their son Vikram Buddhi on November 19. But, Open has learned that the sentencing has been delayed once again, and is now scheduled to take place on 10 December 2009, at 10 a.m. “Mr Buddhi’s attorney is in another trial, and he has asked for a short continuance, which the judge has granted,” said Ed Ciba, the case manager of James T. Moody, the judge presiding over Vikram’s case.

In October, Open highlighted the injustice that has been perpetrated on Vikram, an exceptional Mumbai-bred mathematics student convicted of threatening to kill former US President George W. Bush and several cabinet members on web posts. The entire case against Vikram was based on messages posted on a Yahoo site over several months in late 2005 to early 2006.

Investigators believed that the offending statements—which called upon Iraqis to avenge the war in their country by attacking people and locations in the United States—were sent from Vikram’s university computer. Vikram was questioned by Secret Service agents in ’06 and released because they didn’t believe he posed any real threat to anyone. However, a few months later, seemingly without any provocation, he was arrested and convicted during a speedy four-day trial in June 2007.

The 37-year-old has already spent two-and-a-half years in jail, during which he has been the victim of several instances of racially motivated violence, and when sentenced, Vikram faces a maximum term of up to 35 years in prison. BK Subbarao, his father, has sought the intervention of the Indian government in securing the release of his son. He says SM Krishna, the minister for external affairs, promised to help. “They’ve given me in writing that the matter is under active consideration of the MEA and people in Washington,” says Subbarao. “We can’t do anything more than follow procedure, what else?” Vikram’s father says the indictment on which his son’s trial was based was wrong and Judge Moody was biased against Vikram. Based on evidence in the court papers, Subbarao wants the US Attorney General to declare a mistrial and release Vikram without prejudice, but that would be a difficult and possibly embarrassing admission of error for the US. And so, the status quo continues.

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Manju Sara Rajan