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A sister seeks justice

Nitish S Rele in Tampa

On July 11, 1999, Deepa Agarwal was murdered in her Orlando apartment.

On July 19, Orlando police discovered her body in a cardboard box in a closet.

Now, on the death anniversary of the 20-year-old, her sister Sheela Agarwal is planning to hold a vigil in front of the White House seeking the killer's extradition.

"I want to make sure that justice is served," Sheela Agarwal told rediff.com

The murder suspect is Kamlesh Agarwal, a cousin of Deepa's father. An arrest warrant has been out for him since last summer. Not much is known of his whereabouts except that he is in India. His parents live at Breach Candy, Bombay.

According to the Orlando police, Kamlesh Agarwal sold his car the day Deepa was murdered, bought a ticket to India, and was dropped off at the airport by a college mate.

The police said Deepa had come home late on July 10 after a night out with her friends. When she arrived home, they say, she had a heated argument with Kamlesh, who was in the apartment at the time. A couple of hours later, police say, neighbours saw Kamlesh leaving the apartment.

The police found Deepa's body a couple of days later when they entered the apartment. They were responding to a complaint from friends and parents who had not heard from her.

"I am using all the means at my disposal to get Kamlesh extradited to the United States so he can stand trial in Florida," said Sheela, a graduate student of economics at Duke University, North Carolina.

In May, Sheela started a Web site to help in her effort to close the unresolved chapter in her sister's death. The site, http://www.duke.edu/~sa9/, gives details of the murder. Through the Web site, she is urging people to write letters to their respective congressmen to see that justice is served.

In 1987, India and the US signed an extradition treaty that calls for prompt extradition of fugitive offenders to the requesting nation. Though the US has requested the Indian government to extradite Kamlesh Agarwal, there has been no progress in the matter.

"I have spoken several times to Harry Marshal in the office of international affairs at the Department of Justice," said Sheela. "But the US government needs to put pressure on the Indian authorities, especially the Bombay police, to arrest Kamlesh. I believe that the only power I can pin big hopes on right now is the US government. But they really have to aggressively pursue extradition with the Indian authorities..."

Kamlesh Agarwal's parents run a wholesale textile clothing business in Bombay. Deepa's parents, Mangi and Parwati, and 15-year-old brother Deepak live in Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi. According to Sheela, her father visits Bombay almost every week to get the police there to act, but without any visible effect.

"My sister's name, Deepa, means candle in Hindi. That is why we planned a vigil in Washington DC. Congressman Dan Miller of Florida will also hold a press conference in front of Capitol Hill to speak about the case," she says.

"Though born and raised in the US, my sister was traditionally Indian," said Sheela. "I miss her a lot. I hope she doesn't become a victim of bureaucracy too."

EARLIER REPORTS:
Interpol to help Florida cops in Agarwal murder case
Florida murder suspect might have fled to Bombay
Murdered Florida student's identity confirmed
Unanswered questions in student's murder

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