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I Brought My Sister's Killer to Justice


 

Deepa Agarwal was a promising 20-year-old graduate student when she was beaten to death in her apartment, in 1999. All the evidence pointed to one man, yet it took a yearlong crusade by Deepa's sister, Sheela, to finally have him arrested.

My friends urged me to move on. But I knew I couldn't find closure without justice.On July 11, 1999, Deepa stopped returning Sheela's phone calls. A few days passed before Sheela she called the police. The police said Deepa's apartment was empty and suggested she probably needed a break from school and ran off to the beach. Another week passed, and still no word from Deepa. Sheela called the police again and pleaded with them to go back to Deepa's apartment. This time they found Deepa's badly mutilated body in the closet. She had been bludgeoned to death. Another week passed and, based on overwhelming evidence against him, the police issued a warrant for the arrest of Deepa and Sheela's 21-year-old second cousin, Kamlesh Agarwal.

The day after Deepa was murdered, Kamlesh sold his car and flew home to India. He was charged with the crime, but in order to be prosecuted he had to be returned to the U.S. The State Department filed a provisional extradition request with the Indian government, but Kamlesh could not be extradited until he was arrested. Indian police seemed unwilling to use their meager resources to pursue Kamlesh, and since his crime was not a high-profile one, U.S. authorities didn't pressure them.

Sheela knew she could never find closure without justice. So she posted Deepa's story on a Web site and sent email to everyone she knew asking them to write their legislators and join her in a rally in Washington, D.C., on the first anniversary of Deepa's death. She asked for the help of her local congressman, North Carolina Rep. David Price, who sent a letter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright expressing his interest in the case. Next, Sheela received a call from the office of Rep. Dan Miller, a Florida congressman who has worked closely with victims' families in other cases in which murder suspects fled the country. On July 11, 2000, Rep. Miller held a press conference in the nation's Capitol, followed by a one-hour vigil. Two days later, Indian police arrested Kamlesh in a hotel in Bombay. It took a year and an orchestrated crusade, but Deepa Agarwal's murderer was finally behind bars in India.

What You Can Do

Under the International Extradition Enforcement Act, sponsored by Rep. Dan Miller, nations deemed uncooperative in cases like Deepa's would lose U.S. aid.

Click here to support extradition reform.

 

 



As told to Melba Newsome by Sheela Agarwal