(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury, 29, of Madison, Wisconsin, was sentenced Thursday to 90 months in federal prison for firebombing a pro-life office in the wake of the leak of the draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
According to the Justice Department, law enforcement responded to an active fire at an office building located in Madison on May 8, 2022. Inside, police found mason jars filled with fuel—consistent with the appearance of a Molotov cocktail, the DOJ said. Outside of the building, someone spray painted on one wall, “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either” and, on another wall, a large “A” with a circle around it and the number “1312.”
No one was hurt in the bombing, though the office was badly damaged.
For the remainder of 2022, the bombing was a cold case, according to the DOJ. But then, a leftist protest took place at the Wisconsin state capitol, where FBI surveillance saw protestors spraying graffiti that said, “We will get revenge.” The FBI said that graffiti matched the one left at the pro-life bombing the May prior.
Law enforcement tracked the vehicle of one of the graffiti artists, and saw that it returned to a residence where Roychowdhury lived.
Law enforcement then set up surveillance on Roychowdhury. When they saw him discard a paper bag at a park in March 2023, they took DNA from the bag—and matched it to DNA taken from the Molotov cocktails at the May 2022 bombing scene.
Roychowdhury was as pegged a possible suspect by March 2023. He was arrested as he attempted to leave Boston on a one-way ticket to Guatemala City. He pled guilty in December.
“Roychowdhury’s arson was an act of domestic terrorism,” U.S. Attorney Timothy M. O’Shea for the Western District of Wisconsin said after the sentencing
“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.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
