Friday happened to be the first day for the defence in the sensational trial in which Ravi, 20, the former Rutgers University student is charged with invasion of privacy, bias against gays (hate crime) and 13 other counts.
The mystery man, whose sexual encounter with a now dead Rutgers University student was spied on by an Indian-origin boy through a webcam, made his first public appearance in a United States court and testified that he saw a camera lens pointed toward the bed where he and his friend lay in a "compromising position."
An Indian student testifying in the trial of his former classmate Dharun Ravi, who allegedly spied on his roommate's homosexual tryst, has said he had helped the accused set up the webcam to get a better view of the bed. Lokesh Ojha of Rutgers University took the stand in the trial of 20-year-old Ravi at a New Jersey court. Ravi has been accused of spying on his roommate Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide days later.Ojha described how he had helped Ravi adjust his webcam.
The arrest of Dharun Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro, New Jersey, after the suicide of his roommate at Rutgers University in NJ has shocked the Indian community. Tyler Clementi, 18, of Ridgewood, a freshman at Rutgers, appears to have killed himself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge last week. Ravi and another student, Molly Wei, 18, of Princeton University, NJ, have been charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy for secretly placing a camera in the dormitory room
An Indian-origin former Rutgers student, convicted for spying on his gay roommate who then committed suicide, could see his conviction for bias intimidation reversed after the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the state's law in this regard was unconstitutional.