http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1156542610733


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Also charged was Sunil Agrawal, a 47-year-old native of India and the chief executive of the New-York based STS Jewels — a company with offices in the GTA as well as Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo, Mumbai, Jaipur and Dubai. Agrawal is still at large.

If convicted on all charges, O'Keefe and Agrawal face five to 15 years in prison and a fine of as much as $250,000

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Meghal

http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/aug/30nri.htm?q=tp&file=.htm

Virginia jury convicts Indian computer programmer

August 30, 2006 23:55 IST

A jury in the United States has convicted an Indian computer programmer of killing his wife two years ago.

Praveen Mandanapu, who came to the US about 10 years ago allegedly used a meat cleaver to dismember his wife Divya's body parts and then stuffed them into a suitcase on June 12, 2004 before dumping the remains into trash bins in Loudon and Fairfax counties.

He has been convicted of first-degree murder and might be imprisoned for life.

Praveen was arrested on June 17, 2004 in a semiconscious and suicidal state slumped over his car. He subsequently confessed to the police and apparently begged to be given the death penalty.

The Virginia jury, which convicted Praveen, took just eight hours to pronounce the verdict.

When the verdict was read Mandanapu is said to have buried his head in his hands and cried, and so did his parents who had travelled from their hometown of Hyderabad.

Praveen's father Venkateswarlu Mandanapu has been quoted in a media report as saying that the murder charge was part of an elaborate conspiracy hatched on the part of his son's in-laws. But the conspiracy theory did not surface during the trial.

\"Divya was asking for money and materials� they have trapped us for our money,\" Venkateswarlu Mandanapu told The Washington Post.

The defence had argued that police exploited the mental state of Praveen in getting a confession as also suggesting that the real killer might still be on the loose. The argument was further made that physical evidence gathered by investigators didn't point to his client.

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Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....

"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my
children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don't.'"