My son was declared guilty by 'uninformed' jury: Buddhi's father

The father of IIT alumnus Vikram Buddhi, who was awarded a nearly five-year jail term by a US court for posting hate messages against former president George W Bush, today said his son was declared guilty by an "uninformed and helpless" jury.

"My son was declared guilty by an uninformed, uninstructed and helpless jury. The jury had written a note to the judge saying there is a contradiction between the charges against Vikram and the documents at hand," BK Subbarao told reporters here.

The judge replied saying there is no contradiction and refused to instruct the jury on the law, he alleged.

Subbarao further said that nowhere in the charges levelled against Vikram, does the US government mention the threatening e-mails.

"The charge only states that Vikram knowingly and willfully threatened to kill the then US president George W Bush and his family. Nowhere does it say how did Vikram threaten," Subbarao said.

Vikram, who was pursuing his PhD from Purdue University in the US, was convicted for sending mails threatening to kill Bush and calling for Iraqis to take revenge from the president for the war.

"At best, one can say it is advocacy of violence and not threatening," Subbarao said.