The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : All set for Telugu student’s release from US prison

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Sunday, May 11, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

All set for Telugu student’s release from US prison

Ravi Reddy

Sujith was arrested for making terrorist threats and first-degree assault on a police officer

HYDERABAD: The ordeal of 23-year-old engineering student from Andhra Pradesh Sujith Venkatramolla, languishing in Phelps County Jail in the US for over a year on charges of armed criminal action making terrorist threats and first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer, will end next month.

Consulate General of India in Chicago has sent a communication to the State government that Sujith will be released in June as the charges like felony, assault and armed criminal action against him have been dropped.

Quoting this communication, the General Administration Department wrote a letter to former Dichpally legislator G. Ganga Reddy stating that Sujith was presently lodged at the Correctional Facility waiting for first parole hearing and would be released in early June.

The case

A gold medallist from a city engineering college, Sujith, who belongs to Nizamabad district, went to the US in 2006 to pursue engineering course in the University of Missouri-Rolla. On February 27 last year, he walked into the university waving a paper bag, holding a knife and claiming that he had a bomb and anthrax.

The police rushed to the spot and subdued Sujith by shooting him with a stun gun. It later turned out that the white substance was powdered sugar and there was no explosive.

Several petitions

Several individuals and bodies like The Nizamabad Organisation, American Telugu Association, Telugu Association of North America, Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy and Nizamabad MP Madhu Yaskhi pitched for the student’s release.

The Indian community also rallied behind him by submitting a petition with 1,700 signatures to the Governor, Mayor and Attorney General, Missouri, pleading for mercy.

No more trials

Rayadas Manthena, a US-based software professional associated with The Nizamabad Organisation, in an email, said there would no more trials for Sujith. Bhuvith Kumar, brother of Sujith told The Hindu on Saturday that they were overjoyed by the news. “We have been praying all this days for his safe release. We want him back at the earliest,” he said.

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