An Indian citizen, aged 41, was sentenced for 15 years at a US prison. The convict was declared guilty of conspiring terror attacks at the Pak-Indo border in India.
The District judge, Larry Hicks commented that Balwinder Singh must be kept under the federal government’s watch even after he has completed his jail time. “This is such an incredibly serious offence,” said Hicks, when the prosecutors argued that he has had ties with several terrorist groups from the past two years.
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Brian Sullivan, the assistant US attorney explained that Singh will probably be released after 10 years because he has successfully completed “guilt-free” three years out of his total jail time. Singh’s immigration status will then be decided by the immigration judge himself.
This decision was argued by the defense attorney, Michael Kennedy – “It will be up to an (immigration) judge to decide whether to send someone back to a country where he has been tortured or whether we as a country still stand in opposition to those sort of things”. The attorney further emphasized that the after-jail supervision time should be limited to only 5 years.
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Agent Aaron Rouse, a FBI special agent explained that the case had initially come up after a co-conspirator was arrested while trying to board a flight from San Francisco to Bangkok.
Sillivan said that there is a possibility of Singh being sent back to his home country where he already faces criminal charges associating him to an attack on a passenger bus back in April 2006 which killed 3 people.
“Mr. Singh has been involved with terrorism or terrorist organizations for over 20 years.” He further commented.
“My only request is I should not be deported. I should be released here,” said Singh.
Singh was arrested in 2013 and he bargained his plea against many other criminal charges that had been levied upon him about his activities in the past. The US counter-terrorism department reported that the defendant had ties with Babbar Khalsa International and Khalistan Zindabad.
Singh agreed to plead guilty but said, “My only request is I should not be deported. I should be released here.”
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“These groups engage in violent crimes in India to intimidate and compel the Indian government to create the state of Khalistan,” Said the US attorney for Nevada, Daniel Bogden.
Bogden also highlighted that the criminal had sought asylum in San Francisco with a fake Identity card and this scheme of his eventually got him a permanent residency card in the United States.