Hyderabad: The fourteen Indian students who went through a harrowing phase lasting two days before they were deported from the US on Sunday included 11 from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, one of them a girl. Narrating their tale of woes, they said they were sent into a prison in San Francisco for a full day, where they had to share space with hardcore criminals like smugglers and drug convicts.
They were made to change into a yellow-coloured prison uniform and humiliated to the core without being provided any food, they said. Uppala Sreesaiteja, one among the deported students, said the students travelled by Air India flight AI 173 from Delhi on December 18.
After landing in the US, they were subjected to a process of verification of their Visa and other documents. Immigration officers let off four students and took the others in for questioning. Four of the students including a girl are from AP and the rest are from Telangana.
The students said the officials aimed a pistol at them and threatened to pack them back to India. Later at night, they were handed over to the local police, who shifted them to the Contra Costa County Detention Facilities’ prison cells. “We were given yellow-coloured prison uniform and put with Mexican drug convicts and other notorious criminals. Before that, they told us to handover our cash and other belongings.”
“We requested them to put us in a separate block, but they refused. They gave us beef and pork sandwiches to eat, but we could not, and took only milk,” added Saiteja, a native of Vijayawada. The next day, they were shifted to another central prison, and put under handcuffs and chains. “We were in the prison as if we were terrorists. We went there to study, but they treated using an inhuman way,” said a depressed Saiteja.
On December 20, the students were released and the prison officials gave them a cheque for the money that was deposited with them, after deducting ten dollars from each student. The students who have invested nearly Rs 3 lakh each to get to this stage are still hoping to pursue their dream of completing the Masters.
