Indians arrested in visa fraud case in US plead not guilty in court, one granted bail

HYDERABAD: With their hands and legs shackled and wearing prisoners’ jumpsuits, five out of eight Indians were produced in a Detroit court by the US police in connection with the visa fraud charges against them. All of them pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.


The attorney of one of defendants was critical of the department of homeland security’s entrapment that resulted in the arrest of several Indians. The US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) had used the fraud University of Farmington that it had created to entrap students.

Eight Indians were arrested on allegations of being recruiters for the fraud university. All of them hail from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

“It is unfair for the government to step up something like this to entrap people,” attorney John Brusstar said. He represented Phanideep Karnati, who was one of the accused. They love this country but are saddened by what happened,” the attorney said.

The 35-year-old Phanideep Karnati was allowed to be released by magistrate Judge R Steven Whalen of the federal court in Detroit on a $10,000 unsecured bond. Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit free press reported that Karnati’s wife, two sons aged 2 and 9, were in the court room when he, along with others were produced in the court. “She held her two-year-old son as the attorney described how the family feels,” the newspaper report said.

Of the six arrested in Michigan, five were produced in the court on Monday. Another accused Prem Rampeesa has reportedly asked for an interpreter and will be produced in the court sometime later this week, reports said. Those who appeared in the court were Santosh Sama, Avinash Thakkallapally, Aswanth Nune and Naveen Prathipati. Their detention in jail will continue during the period of the trial.

Phanideep Karnati’s bail plea was considered as he is on a work visa in the US. Since the others were ‘undocumented’ their attorneys agreed to the judge’s decision to continue their detention. The attorneys for the defendants put forward before the judge that the students who joined the University of Farmington had actually been tricked. They also argued that the department of homeland security had listed the university as a ‘legitimate place for foreign students’.

It may be mentioned here that out of the 129 Indian students who had taken admission into the fraud University of Farmington were detained by the immigration authorities after the fraud was busted. The department of homeland security itself admitted that it had created the fake university to entrap the students and bust the visa fraud that took place.