Indian-origin man freed after 43 years in prison denied bail in US deportation fight

Philadelphia: An Indian-origin man who spent 43 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned has been denied bail as he contests deportation in the United States.

Subramanyam Vedam, 64, will remain in immigration custody while appealing a 1999 deportation order. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) recently agreed to hear his case, citing what it described as “exceptional circumstances.”

Vedam was taken directly into federal immigration detention upon his release from state prison on October 3 last year. Authorities had earlier moved him to a detention centre in Louisiana as part of an effort to expedite deportation, but two separate courts intervened.

At a bail hearing on Tuesday, Vedam’s lawyer, Ava Benach, argued that he would likely have avoided deportation and become a US citizen if not for the now-overturned murder case.

Benach said Vedam would have completed his sentence on a minor drug conviction by 1992 under immigration laws then in effect.

“It was delivery of LSD on a very small scale. This is not importing tons of cocaine,” Benach said. “He is not a danger to the community. We are talking about offences that occurred over 40 years ago.”

In August, a Pennsylvania judge vacated Vedam’s murder conviction in the 1980 death of a college friend, ruling that prosecutors had failed to disclose key ballistics evidence during his trials.

Immigration Judge Tamar Wilson, presiding from Elizabeth, New Jersey, ruled that Vedam’s detention was mandatory due to his felony drug conviction. Alternatively, she agreed with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials who argued that he remained a potential safety risk.

“The fact he’s been a ‘model prisoner’ does not suggest that out in the general public he’s going to be safe,” Wilson said.

It remains unclear whether Wilson or another judge will hear the merits of Vedam’s deportation appeal. No hearings have yet been scheduled.

Vedam’s sister, Saraswathi Vedam, described him as “resilient” and said the family remains hopeful. “We continue to believe his immigration case is strong and look forward to the day we can be together again,” she said.

Vedam, who came to the US legally from India as an infant, is currently being held at an 1,800-bed Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in central Pennsylvania.