Keshav Mukund Bhide used an alias to post comments.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: Keshav Mukund Bhide, 24, a former University of Washington (UW) student from India who was arrested in June, 2014 for threating a campus shooting on social media was deported last week.
Bhide departed last Wednesday from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Special agents from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the FBI escorted Bhide to the airport and confirmed his departure, reported the Imperial Valley News.
According to court records, in June police learned of multiple social media threats by a Google user “Foss Dark.” Some of the comments on YouTube and Google + discussed support of the University of California, Santa Barbara shooter, Elliot Rodger, whose killing spree last May left six dead and seven injured. Further investigation connected “Foss Dark” to Bhide and revealed his intentions to carry out an attack against women on the UW Seattle campus, the News reported.
“Everything Elliot did is perfectly justified,” Bhide wrote under an account with the name “Foss Dark,” according to court documents, reported Reuters. Police said Bhide also chatted with other Internet users, including one who requested his name and residence.
“I live in Seattle and go to UW, that’s all (I’ll) give you. (I’ll) make sure I kill only women, and many more than what Elliot accomplished,” he replied, according to court papers.
Bhide told FBI agents and police who went to his home that he was angry with YouTube videos created by Internet users critical of Rodger, according to the federal complaint.
“Bhide stated that he, like Rodger, had a hard time socializing at school and had few friends,” an FBI special agent said in the complaint.
Bhide was arrested and charged in both state and federal court. He was convicted of cyberstalking in King County Superior Court December 11 and sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence. In an agreement with federal prosecutors, the federal indictment for making interstate threats will be dismissed when he departs the United States.
Bhide is barred from entering the US for the next 10 years, and if attempts to do so, the charges against him will be re-opened.
In October, the university notified HSI’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) it had terminated Bhide’s student status. HSI special agents initiated removal proceedings against Bhide and on December 18 an immigration judge ordered him removed.