Authorities sentenced a male Wisconsinite on Wednesday to a seven-and-a-half-year jail term in federal prison for firebombing a pro-life organization’s office two years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wednesday.
Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury, 29, of Madison, “attacked the building with a Molotov cocktail in the wake of the leak of the draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overruling Roe v. Wade,” the DOJ said in its statement. “He targeted the building because it was occupied by an organization that opposed abortion.”
The arson attack occurred in the early hours of May 8, 2022, according to the statement. Law enforcement agents responding to the incident saw a broken mason jar with a burnt lid and screw, a purple disposable lighter near the jar and another mason jar containing what appeared to be an accelerant with a singed piece of cloth stuck into it. They found the office building’s walls defaced with spray-painted signs such as “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either,” a large “A” within a circle and the number “1312,” according to the statement. They also reportedly collected DNA from the site.
Law enforcement agents found the surveillance video of a person spray-painting another sign, “We will get revenge”, on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Capitol in Jan. 2023, which appeared similar to the signs on the pro-life office building. The officers identified Roychowdhury in Mar. 2023 as a possible suspect in the arson attack. DNA collected from a partially eaten burrito that the suspect was observed throwing away into a trash can matched the DNA collected from the attacked building, according to the DOJ.
Law enforcement agents arrested Roychowdhury at Boston Logan International Airport in Mar. 2023 while he was en route to Guatemala City on a one-way ticket, the statement revealed. Roychowdhury reportedly pleaded guilty Dec. 1, 2023. (RELATED: Feds Charge Man With Firebombing Pro-Life Group’s Office After Dobbs Decision Leak)
Roychowdhury attacked Wisconsin Family Action (WFA). The pro-life organization had called for a 15-year prison sentence to be imposed on Roychowdhury, its president emeritus Julaine Appling said in a statement following the sentencing. Appling expressed disappointment that the judge imposed half of the expected sentence for “a crime the judge called ‘terrorism’ multiple times,” according to the statement.
“The court missed an opportunity to strengthen the protection of constitutional rights like free speech and free exercise, rights that have themselves been under assault in recent years,” incumbent (WFA) President Christine File said, according to the statement. She added that nearly 60 individuals supported Roychowdhury in court.
U.S. Attorney Timothy M. O’Shea for the Western District of Wisconsin condemned Roychowdhury’s act as “an act of domestic terrorism,” the statement revealed.
“Domestic terrorism is cowardly and profoundly undemocratic. It is not speech; it is not an exchange of ideas; instead, it is an attempt to harm or frighten one’s fellow citizens, thus driving Americans apart and weakening the fabric of our democratic society,” O’Shea further added, according to the statement. Authorities “will never flinch from holding domestic terrorists accountable,” he said.
