Another Angle...

There is an important detail that should be mentioned here which, quite possibly, has a bearing on this case.

Capt. Subbarao (Vikram Buddhi's father) was a senior officer in the Indian Navy and decided to do his PhD and he worked at BARC, TIFR and IIT Powai. He then came into conflict with the Navy and the Atomic Energy establishment and decided to leave India and go to the US. He was arrested at the airport and thrown into prison on charges of being a spy. At the trial, it emerged that the `secret document' that he had in his posession was his PhD thesis.

While in jail, he taught himself law which is how he is now a supreme court advocate.

I would not be surprised if this has some bearing on the case. Vikram Buddhi seems to have committed no crime apart from (if the allegations are true, which they may not be) posting some obnoxious messages on a yahoo chat-board while being in a possibly inebriated state.

For this, he was convicted of a "conspiracy to assassinate the president". This is absolutely ridiculous.

More strangely, the secret service interrogated him, decided that he was not a threat (obviously, he wasn't a threat to anyone) and then after some time reversed course, decided to catch him, throw him in jail and launch a serious and expensive prosecution. I would not be entirely surprised if the entire background of his father played into this. Someone vicious in the Indian establishment may have `tipped off' someone in the US.