‘This should not happen to anyone': Indian-origin man exonerated 22 years later despite DNA proof

Indian Express

a day ago

In November 2001, Gujarati-American Sandeep 'Sonny' Bharadia was around 400 km away from Thunderbolt, Georgia. Meanwhile, back in US town on the same day, a woman walked in on a burglar inside her house. The burglar sexually assaulted her at knifepoint and fled with her belongings in a stolen car.
That stolen car belonged to Bharadia, whose family has roots in Padana village of Gujarat's Kutch district. He had called the police earlier to report that his 'acquaintance' Sterling Flint had 'disappeared with his car'. Despite his complaint, Bharadia was convicted for burglary and sexual assault in the Thunderbolt case in 2003.
On May 16 this year, in a hearing that lasted less than a minute, Bharadia was exonerated by the very judge who had sentenced him in 2003. However, his exoneration came at a steep cost: 22 years in prison after being denied a retrial in 2004 despite having DNA evidence to prove his innocence.
During the May 16 hearing, Bharadia said, 'This should not happen to anyone.'
At this, the judge simply said: 'Okay.'
Speaking to The Indian Express over videoconferencing from the US, Bharadia says, 'It is surreal. You wait for something for so long and believe it will happen, but circumstances are so overwhelming that you fight against hope.'
Till October 2001, Bharadia was just another sheet metal worker in an air-conditioning workshop in Thunderbolt. He had just turned 27, had a girlfriend, earned a decent wage and spent his spare time in the gym. A month earlier, on September 11, 2001, New York's Twin Towers were destroyed in a terror attack. Then, November rolled in, bringing with it a 22-year-long nightmare for Bharadia.
His stolen car and the assault-cum-robbery led the police to Flint, from whom they recovered the stolen goods. The victim too identified Flint as her attacker from a photo line-up. Bharadia's attorney said Flint had used his vehicle to commit two burglaries and was also involved in a high-speed chase with the police in the same vehicle before crashing it.
Denying all accusations in the Thunderbolt case, Flint claimed Bharadia had given him the stolen goods for safe keeping. So the police organised a second photo line-up — only this time, they only put Bharadia's photo and not Flint's. This time, the victim identified Bharadia as her attacker, even though he looks nothing like Flint, a Black man, says his attorney.
According to the Georgia Innocence Project (GIP), which helped overturn Bharadia's conviction, Flint pleaded guilty to burglary in exchange for immunity from the 'aggravated sodomy and sexual battery' charge and a statement against Bharadia.
There was still no physical evidence against Bharadia, says GIP Senior Attorney Christina Cribbs, who, along with a pro bono counsel, filed an amended habeas corpus petition (used in cases of illegal detention) in December 2022.
She adds that Flint and his girlfriend's 'incentivised' testimony, the 'unreliable' second photo line-up and a pair of blue batting gloves worn by the attacker — the only item the victim recalled in her police statement — lead to Bharadia's conviction for burglary, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and theft by receiving on June 27, 2003, by the Senior Judge of Chatham County Superior Court of the Eastern Judicial Circuit.
Bharadia says, 'I had given the investigators proof of my innocence: the calls I had made (that day), and my stops at Wendy's (a fast-food restaurant) and a gas station (around 11.45 pm). I was on (CCTV) cameras at these locations, but he (the judge) did not care. He just relied on this guy (Flint's) girlfriend (whose testimony said Bharadia had brought the goods stolen from the victim's house to hers).'
Since the Georgia Bureau of Investigation required bodily fluids to conduct DNA tests and none were present, the gloves — that would eventually lead to Bharadia's exoneration — were not tested at the time of his trial. When his attorney reached out to the GIP, they suggested the 'touch' DNA test, then a cutting-edge procedure that tested for DNA from skin cells left on surfaces.
Bharadia says, 'My attorney asked if I was sure because the results could be the final nail in my coffin. 'I am innocent,' I wrote back in big letters on a sheet of paper.'
The attorney sent the glove to a laboratory in California, almost 4,000 km away, to obtain a DNA profile and compare it with a sample from Bharadia. The two DNAs were not a match. In 2004, the attorney moved a plea seeking a sample from Flint, but his plea was denied.
Confident of his conviction being overturned after the DNA results, the development left Bharadia 'crushed'. He says, 'In TV shows, when a DNA test comes back negative, the person is set free. For me, there was hurdle after hurdle after hurdle. The judge even denied me a new trial.'
The first breakthrough came only eight years later, in 2012, when the DNA profile matched with someone else after it was run through CODIS (the national DNA database): Flint.
Bharadia's case then went all the way to the Georgia Supreme Court, which ultimately decided against him, partially on the grounds that his counsel had not insisted on a DNA test for the gloves during the 2003 trial, although 'touch' DNA testing was not routinely performed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation until 2015, over a decade after Bharadia's trial.
The GIP and a pro bono counsel filed an amended habeas corpus plea in December 2022. An evidentiary hearing was held on June 20, 2023. On April 9, 2024, an order of Gwinnett County Judge Laura Tate overturned his conviction, stating that Bharadia's 'constitutional rights were violated'. Once again, his case was sent back to the Chatham County District Attorney's Office to determine whether it wanted to prosecute Bharadia. As the state's decision was awaited, he was released in November 2024. On May 16, 2025, the state dismissed all charges against him.
Attorney Cribbs says, 'Although the court exonerated Bharadia in its final order, Flint was never arrested or held accountable for the crime despite the DNA evidence.'
She says a new legislation that came into effect in the US on July 1 will make Bharadia eligible to move an application for compensation from the state for unlawful incarceration, 'but the process would be long'.
Stating that his initial years in jail were 'full of turmoil', Bharadia says he faced attacks by aggressive prison gangs, including getting stabbed in the ear.
Bharadia, who spent 22 years in a 'high-security prison', recalls, 'I was surrounded by hardened criminals. They possessed arms illegally, which they used to run gangs — African-Americans, Whites and Hispanics — in prison. I never met another Indian man in prison. I got stabbed in the ear once. My biggest fear was dying there. It was like trying to survive in a jungle:. Everybody had weapons, but if you get caught, you get (punished)…They (inmates) are aggressive. If you get anything more than they do — food, a coke or whatever — they want it'
Then there was the ostracism from his own family.
'My sister, who stays in London, cut ties with me. Our relationship turned rocky after I went to prison. I think she knew I was innocent, but the scandal had affected her social standing. The hardest was losing my father 10 years ago. My mother says she saw him cry only once in the 45 years they were married — when I was arrested. Though we made peace just before he passed, I could not attend his funeral,' he says.
Despite his Indian roots, Bharadia has never visited India. 'My family has not lived in Gujarat for generations now. Most of them are in London now. My father was born in Africa, my mother in Uganda. He moved to London in the early 1970s. They migrated to the US in 1984.'
Since his exoneration, Bharadia has been living with his mother, nearly 75. Stating that he still 'hasn't fully processed the ordeal I went through' he says, 'She is glad to see me out of prison. Till date, I am not in touch with most of my family members, just an aunt and some of my father's relatives. People just walk away when they see a scandal, which affected my father. They succeed in life, while I ended up in prison.'
In prison, he says, he spent his time reading books since words of encouragement were few and far between. 'I read books, like Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom. It spoke to me. I read nearly three books a week in jail. I stayed in touch with family through phones that other inmates had (smuggled in),' he says.
One thing that helped Bharadia in jail was talking to people. 'One of these people is Jennifer Thompson, a friend, rape survivor and a bestselling author (of Picking Cotton, a memoir of her case). She became my go-to over the years, especially when I was depressed about my situation. Then there is Christina (Cribbs, his attorney).'
On his future plans, Bharadia says, 'I saw my 20s, 30s and 40s go by in jail. I will be 51 soon. I grew up in a Gujarati-speaking household, but forgot the language in prison. Maybe I will pick up the language again. I also plan to write books. I already started writing one, Eastern Fathers, Western Sons, a few years back. It comes from my own challenges in my relationship with my father. He grew up in the East and I, in the West. We spoke different languages. I also plan to join a vocation that will help me support others, including trafficking victims, in fighting against similar injustices.'