Indian national sentenced to 8 years for attempted attack on White House

Indian national Sai Varshith Kandula, 20, on Thursday was sentenced to eight years for an attempted attack on the White House with a rented truck on May 22, 2023.

The attack aimed to overthrow the democratically elected American government in order to replace it with a dictatorship fuelled by Nazi ideology, the Department of Justice said.

Kandula had pleaded guilty on May 13, 2024 to a charge of willful injury or depredation of US property. Born in Chandanagar, India, he was a was a lawful permanent resident of the US with a green card. In addition to the prison term, District Court Judge Dabney L Friedrich ordered Kandula to serve three years of supervised release.

The Indian national flew on a commercial flight from St Louis, Missouri, to Washington D.C. on the afternoon of May 22, 2023, connecting through another airport on a one-way airline ticket, according to court documents, and arrived at Dulles International Airport about 5:20 pm, wherein he rented a truck at 6:30 pm.

He stopped for food and gas, and then drove to Washington, D.C., where he crashed into the barriers protecting the White House and the President's Park at 9:35 pm at the intersection of H Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest. Kandula drove onto the sidewalk, sending pedestrians running from the scene. After striking the barriers, the truck backed up in reverse, then lurched forward, striking the metal barriers a second time. The second impact disabled the truck which began smoking from the engine compartment and leaking fluids.

Kandula next exited the vehicle and went to the back of the truck. From a backpack he removed a flag, a three-by-five foot red-and-white banner with a Nazi Swastika in the centre, and brandished it. US Park Police and the US Secret Service officers arrested Kandula at the scene and took him into custody, the Department of Justice said.

According to the plea agreement, at the time Kandula crashed the truck into the White House perimeter, he was attempting to gain access to the White House to seize political power.

"Kandula's intent was to replace the democratically elected government with a dictatorship fueled by ideology of Nazi Germany and for himself to be put in charge of the United States. Kandula admitted to investigators that he would have arranged for the killing of the US President and others if necessary to achieve his objective. His actions were calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion," it said. -- PTI