Missouri resident of Indian descent admits to attempted White House attack in guilty plea

May 14:
Twenty-year-old Sai Varshith Kandula of Indian descent resides in Missouri. On May 22, 2023, he tried to drive a U-Haul truck into the fence around the White House building. Kandula pleaded guilty to a charge of deliberate injury or depredation of US property.

On August 23, Kandula, an Indian national born in Chandanagar, will be sentenced. In an official statement from the US Attorney's Office, District of Columbia, it was said that Kandula sought to seize political power by assuming the presidency and establishing a government aligned with Nazi Germany's philosophy. The trespass had been in his plans for weeks before.

In the afternoon of May 22, 2023, Kandula boarded a commercial flight from St. Louis, Missouri, to Washington DC, using a one-way ticket that connected through another airport, as noted in the statement, which cited court papers.

Around 5:30 p.m., Kandula touched down at Dulles International Airport, and by 6:30 p.m., she had rented a truck. He returned to his vehicle and continued driving to Washington, DC. At 9:35 p.m., near the intersection of H Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest, he slammed into the walls that surround the White House and President's Park.

Pedestrians fled the scene as Kandula drove onto the pavement. When the vehicle first hit the obstacles, it lurched ahead before reversing course and hitting the metal barriers again. According to the statement, the truck was rendered inoperable after a second accident, which caused the engine compartment to emit smoke and spill fluids.

Then Kandula got out of the car and headed to the truck's tailboard. He took a four-by-five-foot red-and-white banner with a Nazi Swastika in the middle out of his rucksack and waved it. The court complaint finished by saying that authorities from the US Secret Service and the US Park Police detained Kandula at the site.

Curiously, when the event occurred in 2023, reporters cited Kandula's classmates at Marquette High School, who said he was a peaceful student who rarely got into problems. The National Park Service lost $4,322 and U-Haul International more than $50,000 due to Kandula's illegal acts.