Keshav Mukund Bhide is on a student visa.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: An Indian-origin student of the University of Washington was released on bond earlier today, after being arrested earlier this month and charged in federal court for making violent comments on the Internet that insinuated he could be planning to kill people.
Keshav Mukund Bhide, a 23 year-old who is in the US on a student visa, was taken into police custody on June 14 after online communications surfaced indicating that Bhide may have been planning a mass murder similar to that of Elliot Rodger, the 22 year-old who killed six people and injured 13 others at Seattle Pacific University.
Even more chilling are allegations that Bhide was a fan of Rodger, and also wanted to kill women as some sort of punitive measure in much the same way that Rodger said he aimed to do.
Bhide even promised to outdo the carnage Rodger instigated, saying things like “I am the next Elliot Rodger and guess what I’ll do the right thing this time.” Additionally, Bhide also said that “everything Elliot did was justified” and that he would also only target women, not men as well.
Bhide was apprehended by FBI agents and local police at his home, whom he reportedly told that he was upset about the backlash Rodger faced in the wake of his mass shooting and subsequent death.
Reuters reports that although Bhide is now out of jail, having posted the $150,000 bond money, he has been ordered to stay away from the University of Washington campus, and is wearing a GPS tracking anklet.
His arrest and upcoming legal proceedings also throw his visa status into question. Student visa regulations maintain that the visa is active and valid so long as the individual is enrolled in a school, but the University of Washington will likely want to throw Bhide out if his case on felony interstate threat charges goes to trial.
If that happens, and Bhide is found guilty, he will only face an immigration hearing after serving his jail sentence, per US Immigration and Customs Enforcement regulations.
Bhide will next appear in court on July 3; information on how much jail time he currently faces is as yet unknown.