http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/stories_bay_cal/berkland_20001025.htm
Posted at 2:24 p.m. PDT Wednesday, October 25, 2000
Berkeley landlord faces federal immigration charges
BAY CITY NEWS SERVICE


Federal prosecutors filed court papers today in Oakland charging a Berkeley
landlord and four others with immigration violations and transporting girls
from India for illegal sexual activity.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed last week to ask U.S. District
Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong to set an Oct. 30 hearing for entry of guilty
pleas by 62-year-old Lakireddy Bali Reddy, his 30- year-old son Vijay Kumar
Lakireddy and two other defendants named in the five-count superseding
information, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kennedy.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in San Francisco said today
that the hearing has been set for Monday morning. A separate Oct. 31 hearing
was requested for entry of a guilty plea by the fifth defendant, Annapurna
Lakireddy.
The case came to light after two teen-age girls allegedly brought from India
by Reddy were overcome last November by carbon monoxide fumes from an
improperly ventilated gas heater in a Berkeley apartment he owned. One of
the girls, then known as Sitha Vemireddy, 17, died; her 15-year-old sister
recovered.
The five defendants are charged in the information with bringing Indian
nationals to the U.S. as spouses, dependents, and relatives of U.S. citizens
or as skilled workers and their dependents, arranging for them to assume
false identities, sponsoring sham marriages and petitioning for entry into
the country on phony visa categories for which they were not qualified.
In addition, Lakireddy Bali Reddy and Vijay Kumar Lakireddy are charged with
importing Indian girls under the age of 18 to engage in illegal sexual
activity for Lakireddy Bali Reddy. Lakireddy Bali Reddy is also charged with
bringing two girls over for his personal sexual use, and Vijay Lakireddy is
charged with helping to bring the same two girls over for the benefit of his
father.
Lakireddy Bali Reddy is also charged in the indictment with filing a phony
tax return, and his son Vijay Lakireddy is charged with filing false
immigration documents.