When any US citizen is detained in a foreign country, a concerned embassy swoops in, lobbies aggressively, and bails him out. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Indian Government. On the one hand we have the case of Warren Anderson of Union Carbide, and on the other, we have IIT alumnus and former PhD candidate, Vikram Buddhi.

After being convicted in June 2007 on charges of posting hate messages against former President George Bush on the internet, Vikram Buddhi was finally, on December 14, 2009 sentenced to 57 months in prison and a further 3 years of supervised release. The notice of appeal was filed before the Seventh Court of Appeals on the same day by the court that sentenced him, since Vikram had represented himself at the sentencing.

A campaign for a fair trial is being led by lawyer and IIT Senate member Somnath Bharti ever since Buddhi's case came to light.

Persons involved in the campaign have expressed several concerns with regard to Buddhi's trial and the investigation preceding it. In the course of the trial, the prosecution admitted in an affidavit that Purdue's Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) table- produced as evidence that the hate message originated from Buddhi- was 'poisoned', which would constitute grounds for reasonable doubt, due to the possibility of hacking. However, no mention of this was made during court proceedings. Bharti also alleges misconduct on the part of the prosecution, claiming that Dr. B.K. Subbarao, Buddhi's father, was named as a government witness only to prevent him from attending the trial and assisting the defense counsel.

Bharti informed Bar & Bench that persistent follow-ups have resulted in a couple of large Chicago firms expressing interest in representing Buddhi's appeal pro bono. "I am in deliberations with them, and they are in alignment with our stand on the indictment and trial," he said. He is, however, disappointed with the Government's cold shoulder to the issue. The External Affairs Minister, Dr. S.M. Krishna had, in October, promised that the Indian government would provide all necessary aid to Buddhi, including a promise to provide legal assistance to Buddhi and contact the United States authorities, asking them to review the case. Bharti says that these promises have remained unfulfilled, and criticizes the government's unwillingness to help a citizen wrongfully jailed in another country.