Indian-origin US student linked to suicide case never transmitted gay-sex video, says lawyer

NEW YORK - The lawyer for an Indian origin student in New Jersey university who has been charged with invasion of privacy for secretly filming gay-sex footage of roommate Tyler Clementi, has claimed that he and his co-accused student were the only ones to have seen the footage for a few seconds and had never transmitted it anyone else.

According to the New York Post, Dharun Ravi, along with another student Molly Wei, have been charged with invasion of privacy after Ravi allegedly used a webcam on September 19 to capture his roommate, Clementi, having a gay sexual encounter. Clementi jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge three days later.

“Nothing was transmitted beyond that one computer and what was seen was only viewed for a matter of seconds,” Rhavi’s lawyer, Steve Altman, said.

Wei reportedly told her friends later that she only saw Clementi and the man hug and kiss and also described the man in Clementi’s room as “kind of sketchy” looking.

Rhavi and Wei have withdrawn from the New Jersey university in the wake of the scandal, the paper said.

Under New Jersey’s privacy law it is a crime to transmit or even view images that depict nudity or sexual contact with an individual without that person’s consent.

Collecting or viewing sexual images without consent is a fourth-degree crime, while transmitting them is a third-degree crime with a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Both Ravi and Wei could face up to five years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors are considering hate crime charges. (ANI)