India slams US for radio-tracking student victims

The External Affairs Ministry has called as unacceptable and avoidable the treatment meted out to Indian students, including fitting of radio-trackers in their bodies, after they were duped by a sham university in California.

Amid reports and footage that Indian students were made to wear radio-trackers on foot, an angry reaction from the Indian External Affairs Ministry followed on Sunday.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna called it “an insult to injury” of the students who were duped by the Tri-Valley University.

“It was avoidable,” he said while his ministry issued a statement.

The statement says: “We have conveyed to the US authorities that the students, most of who are victims themselves, must be treated fairly and reasonably, and that the use of monitors on a group of students, who were detained and later released with monitors in accordance with US laws, is unwarranted and should be removed.”

Of the nearly 1,555 students of Tri-Valley University, an overwhelming 90 percent are from India, especially Andhra Pradesh.

Following the closure of the university, the students face deportation.

Ashok Kolla, the Students’ chairperson of the Telugu Association of North America, told NDTV: “The passports of the students have been impounded and the navigation device has been fit on their leg so the authorities can know where the student is at any point in time. So they will know if the student leaves the Bay area.”