Indian Student Sentenced One Year Jail And $58,471 Fine After Damaging College Computer

| Published: Friday, August 16, 2019, 18:01 [IST]

In a shocking incident, a former Indian student was sentenced to jail in the United States for a year along with supervised release. The 27-year-old Vishwanath Akuthota was found guilty of intentionally damaging computers of his college. Akuthota studied at St Rose in New York, United States.

Indian Student Sentenced One Year Jail After Damaging College Computer

Vishwanath belongs to Chittor district of Andhra Pradesh India. On August 13, 2019, he was ordered to pay the fine of $58,471 (approx Rs. 41,74,975) as recovery for damaging the computer of the institution.

As per The News Minute report, Vishwanath was pursuing his Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Computer Information System at St Rose in New York. He admitted that, on February 14, 2019, he damaged 66 computers of his college by inserting a "USB Killer" device. This includes computer monitors and enhanced podiums.

USB Killer devices send a command to the on-board capacitor to quickly charge and discharge over and over. This overloading causes damage to the USB port and wiring system of the computer. Moreover, the USB ports are also found physically destroyed.

"Akuthota is a citizen of India, residing in the United States on a student visa. He has been in custody since he was arrested in North Carolina on February 22, 2019," BGR quoted the US Attorney's office as saying.

He was also caught on CCTV camera while damaging the property of the college. The investigating officials submitted the footages to the court as a piece of evidence.

The reason behind this huge loss has not been disclosed yet. The fine amount is huge and this is a major concern for the student to pay the amount. He was arrested in North Carolina on February 22, 2019, and since then he has been into custody.