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Man suspected of killing Indian student Sharath Koppu in Kansas shot dead by US Police

July 16, 2018

Washington, Jul 16: A suspect in the killing of 25-year-old Indian student Sharath Koppu in Kansas City has been killed in an exchange of fire with the police, leaving three undercover officers injured, US authorities said on Monday. Koppu was fatally shot on July 6 in the back during a suspected attempted robbery at a restaurant where he worked in the US state of Missouri.

The police officials on Sunday found the suspect involved in the shooting, but when two undercover officers conducting surveillance approached the man, he shot them with a rifle and fled, leaving both officers injured, Kansas City Star reported.

That encounter touched off a series of gunfights between the suspect, whose name has not been released, and police. In all, three officers were injured and the potential suspect was killed, the report said. The three officers' wounds were not life-threatening, police said.

The attack on the two undercover officers started at a motel in east Kansas City, the shootings continued an hour later then ended after a short standoff and the suspect's death, it added.

The homicide detectives had released the surveillance video of a possible suspect within a day. A few tips came in. Soon, police had identified the man they called a person of interest.

Detectives were looking for the man all week, Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith was quoted as saying by the report. "This is the first time we laid eyes on him," Smith said.

Two undercover detectives followed a car the man was riding ."That's when the engagement took place," Smith said.

The man shot the two undercover officers with a rifle and escaped along with a second person in a vehicle, according to police. The vehicle and the other person were soon found by police.

The Indian Association of Kansas City praised the police for pursuing Koppu's shooting diligently and that "there is some closure" with the person of interest's death.

"We are happy to hear that the suspect was caught and justice has been served to Koppu. On the same lines, we are equally disheartened hearing about the three officers who were shot in pursuit. Our thoughts and prayers are with them for a speedy recovery," Jagdeesh Subramanian, president of the India Association of Kansas City, said in a statement.

Koppu from Telangana was a software engineer who came to the US in January to pursue his master's degree.

Last week, his body was laid to rest in Telangana after his last rites were performed in Warangal.

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News Network
March 6,2020

New York, Mar 6: A 23-year-old Indian with a student visa in the US has pleaded guilty to sexual enticement of a minor girl, prosecutors have said.

Sachin Aji Bhaskar faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

He pleaded guilty before Senior US District Judge William M Skretny to sexual enticement of a minor.

The charge carries a minimum penalty of 10 years in prison, a maximum penalty of life in prison, a fine of USD 250,000 or both, US Attorney James P Kennedy said.

Prosecutors alleged that Bhaskar communicated by text and email with an 11-year-old girl for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity.

Through those communications, Bhaskar enticed the victim to engage in a sexual activity with him in August, 2018, they said.

The sentencing in the case is scheduled for June 17.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Sydney, Jul 28: Nearly 3 billion koalas, kangaroos and other native Australian animals were killed or displaced by bushfires in 2019 and 2020, a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Tuesday, triple the group's earlier estimates.

Some 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs were impacted by the country's worst bushfires in decades, the WWF said.

When the fires were still blazing, the WWF estimated the number of affected animals at 1.25 billion. The fires destroyed more than 11 million hectares (37 million acres) across the Australian southeast, equal to about half the area of the United Kingdom.

"This ranks as one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history," said WWF-Australia Chief Executive Officer Dermot O'Gorman in a statement.

The project leader Lily Van Eeden, from the University of Sydney, said the research was the first continent-wide analysis of animals impacted by the bushfires, and "other nations can build upon this research to improve understanding of bushfire impacts everywhere".

The total number included animals which were displaced because of destroyed habitats and now faced lack of food and shelter or the prospect of moving to habitat that was already occupied.

The main reason for raising the number of animal casualties was that researchers had now assessed the total affected area, rather than focusing on the most affected states, they said.

After years of drought made the Australian bush unusually dry, the country battled one of its worst bushfire seasons ever from September 2019 to March 2020, resulting in 34 human deaths and nearly 3,000 homes lost.

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News Network
March 5,2020

Washington, Feb 5: Experts warned a US government panel last night that India's Muslims face risks of expulsion and persecution under the country’s new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which has triggered major protests.

The hearing held inside Congress was called by the US Commission on International Freedom, which has been denounced by the Indian government as biased.

Ashutosh Varshney, a prominent scholar of sectarian violence in India, told the panel that the law championed by prime minister Narendra Modi's government amounted to a move to narrow the democracy's historically inclusive and secular definition of citizenship.

"The threat is serious, and the implications quite horrendous," said Varshney, a professor at Brown University.

"Something deeply injurious to the Muslim minority can happen once their citizenship rights are taken away," he said.

Varshney warned that the law could ultimately lead to expulsion or detention -- but, even if not, contributes to marginalization.

"It creates an enabling atmosphere for violence once you say that a particular community is not fully Indian or its Indianness in grave doubt," he said.

India's parliament in December passed a law that fast-tracks citizenship for persecuted non-Muslim minorities from neighboring countries.

Responding to criticism at the time from the US commission, which advises but does not set policy, India's External Affairs Ministry said the law does not strip anyone's citizenship and "should be welcomed, not criticized, by those who are genuinely committed to religious freedom."

Fears are particularly acute in Assam, where a citizens' register finalized last year left 1.9 million people, many of them Muslims, facing possible statelessness.

Aman Wadud, a human rights lawyer from Assam who traveled to Washington for the hearing, said that many Indians lacked birth certificates or other documentation to prove citizenship and were only seeking "a dignified life."

The hearing did not exclusively focus on India, with commissioners and witnesses voicing grave concern over Myanmar's refusal to grant citizenship to the Rohingya, the mostly Muslim minority that has faced widespread violence.

Gayle Manchin, the vice chair of the commission, also voiced concern over Bahrain's stripping of citizenship from activists of the Shiite majority as well as a new digital ID system in Kenya that she said risks excluding minorities.

More than 40 people were killed last week in New Delhi in sectarian violence sparked by the citizenship law.

India on Tuesday lodged another protest after the UN human rights chief, Michele Bachelet, sought to join a lawsuit in India that challenges the citizenship law's constitutionality.

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