New Delhi: An Indian student in the US on Wednesday pleaded guilty to stabbing his science professor at the University of Massachusetts and received a jail term of four to five years.
Fearing flunking out of school and being deported to India, 23-year old Nikhil Dhar, from Kolkata, stabbed professor Mary Elizabeth Hooker after she gave him a failing grade.
He had been scheduled to go on trial in Middlesex Superior Court last Wednesday.
But two days before the trial, his attorney said his client had decided to plead guilty in an agreement with prosecutors because of overwhelming evidence implicating him in the attack on December 22, 2005.
Judge Diane Kottmyer sentenced Dhar to four to five years in state prison on charges of armed assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
The prosecution maintained that Dhar had been flunking out of school and feared he would be deported.
Hooker, an assistant professor of clinical lab sciences, had Dhar as a student in her hematology lecture and laboratory courses.
The Professor had told the authorities that Dhar approached her at her home and wanted to talk about failing her class.
After she suggested going to a coffee shop to talk, Dhar dragged her into the yard, hit her and stabbed her in the neck, according to police reports.
Hooker was attacked after Dhar followed her for over 30 km from the campus to her Cambridge home.
Right before the attack, Dhar allegedly told Hooker, "Now I will have to go back to my country," police said.
She was hospitalised for several days after the attack.
Hooker said in a statement in the court that she has been living with "emotional scars" and has become "much more cautious" in her dealings with students.
As quoted by PTI, Hooker said she was "extremely aware that the outcome of this attack could have been very different".
She survived, she said, in part because neighbours heard her cries, called the police and provided first aid in time.
Comments
0 comment