Bail reduced for man arrested at airport with brass knuckles

Houston: A judge Monday lowered the bail for an Indian man arrested for carrying brass knuckles and suspicious Islamic jihad literature in a Houston airport last week.
A documentary film maker from India, Vijay Kumar was in Houston to lecture a Hindu organization about Islamic fundamentalism and the books packed in his checked luggage were educational tools, authorities and his lawyer said.
State District Judge David Mendoza lowered Kumar's bail from $50,000 to $5,000 after learning more details about the case and that prosecutors were willing to let him plead to time served for unlawfully carrying a weapon in an airport.
"I think that everybody realized that he is not a threat. He's a peaceful man," his attorney Grant Scheiner said."He was here to visit the Hindu Congress of America, to deliver a lecture. It was about an interfaith discussion between Hindus and Muslims about the harms of terrorism."
Prosecutor Mary Irvine said in court that Kumar was detained at George Bush Intercontinental on Friday after "acting suspicious."
The situation escalated, Irvine said, after screeners thought they saw a possible handgun in a scan of Kumar's baggage and an explosives residue test showed a false positive for Kumar's baggage.Investigators found the brass knuckles, a manual for a handgun and Islamic literature in Kumar's checked luggage.
23/08/10 Brian Rogers/Chron.com

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Categories: airports aug 2010, Foreign Aug 2010