Judge Deborah Robinson also rejected the defence plea of shifting the case to South Carolina where the original arrests and charges have been made including that of a co-conspirator, Mythili Gopal, who has been granted bail on her own recognisance.
In a lengthy fifty-minute hearing at the US District Court in Washington, DC on Thursday, it was also revealed that the Sudarshan is a passport holder of the Republic of Singapore, holding a valid passport of that country that expires in July 2014.
At the time of his arrest in South Carolina in March, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had seized his "expired" passport issued by the Republic of Singapore, his Defence Attorney Beattie Ashmore told the PTI in response to a query.
Led into the courtroom by a US Marshall in a bring orange jumpsuit with his hands clasped behind his back Sudarshan showed no emotion, only briefly consulting with his attorney from South Carolina at the start of the proceedings.
In his opening remarks, the US Attorney in charge of the case on Thursday Jay Bratt stressed the seriousness of the white collar crimes making the point that Sudarshan violated export controls pertaining to non proliferation,missile delivery systems and in general engaging in illegal activities.
"These are very serious charges", Bratt maintained going on to make the point that Sudarshan has been slapped with 12 charges and that he knew even way back in 2002 and 2003 that he was violating the law by engaging with the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center and the Bharat Dynamics Limited.
Sudarshan was described by the prosecutuon as the "ring leader" and the "Brain" behind the entire operations with active links to the Government of India.
The prosecuting Attorney told the Judge that Sudarshan told authorities that he is acting as an Agent of the Government of India.
"He has acknowledged as much," Bratt maintained who went on to say that the Singapore national was acting with an official of the Embassy of India on acquisitions for the Tejas with even the two travelling together to Rochester.
According to the prosecution, Sudarshan had told the FBI in a statement of March 23,2007, "I acted as an agent of the Government of India, although I was not a paid intelligence officer."
The prosecution also said that while the government concedes that Sudarshan is not a physical danger to the community, his activities did pose different dangers to the community.
Objecting to the release of the accused, the Prosecution maintained that Sudarshan was a "flight risk", someone who has ties in the United States but ones that were rapidly "evaporating". The point was made that Singapore will not extradite him under the present charges in spite of an extradition treaty and Sudarshan's ties were such that it will be "next to impossible" to get him extradited from India.
Acknowledging the seriousness of the charges, the defence maintained that Sudarshan had enough roots in the United States to stay back and answer the charges and that the Judge would have to allow him to participate in his own defence.
The Defence strongly refuted the contention that Sudarshan is a "flight risk" and at this point even surrendered his current valid passport issued by Singapore.
The next step in the process is that of a "status" hearing that will discuss the schedule of how the case will proceed. This has been set for April 17 but with a different Judge, Ricardo Urbina.
In a brief meeting with reporters at the Courthouse, the Defence Attorney maintained that all options are being evaluated and that a request for a "speedy trial" has been made.
If convicted of the charges, Sudarshan faces a jail time of between 97 to 121 months and the co-accused Mythili Gopal between 63 and 78 months.
