US citizen Sadhana Gollapudi faces false student visa fraud allegations
"Thank you for the information. My office investigated the matter. She is a naturalized U.S. citizen; she is not here on a student visa."
HUSTON:- Dancer Sadhana Gollapudi, an artist of Indian origin, has become the target of cyberbullying on social media following false allegations of student visa fraud.
An ‘X’ user named ‘CyberGreen09’ accused Sadhana Gollapudi of being a “perpetual F-1 student.” The accusation was directed at Sadhana, who resides in Houston, Texas, and performs the traditional Indian dance style ‘Kuchipudi’.
An ‘X’ user named ‘CyberGreen09’ writes, “Meet Sadhana Gollapudi, who has been a ‘perpetual F1 student’ since 2014. Sadhana enjoys ‘crab dancing’ barefoot in Houston, Texas. She has been playing the student visa game by enrolling in various programs for 12 years.”
Sharing a video of Gollapudi performing Kuchipudi dance and using the hashtag #visafraud, an ‘X’ user named ‘CyberGreen09’ wrote, “She works as a dancer and a teacher paid in cash, in violation of her visa rules.”
After the post went viral, Houston-based attorney Aaron Ritz took an interest in the matter and revealed that she is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Responding to a post by an ‘X’ user named ‘CyberGreen09’, he said, “Thank you for the information. My office investigated the matter. She is a naturalized U.S. citizen; she is not here on a student visa.”
“As the U.S. Attorney for Houston, I take visa fraud seriously. We will pursue full legal action regarding this. There is no place on U.S. soil for foreign nationals residing illegally or for individuals who have obtained legal status through unlawful means,” said Ritz.
Biomedical engineer Sadhana Gollapudi has alleged that an account named ‘CyberGreen09’ has been “spreading false and misleading claims” about her.
“The past few days have been extremely difficult and distressing for me and my loved ones. My content has been reposted without my permission via an account on another social media platform (X, formerly Twitter); that account is spreading false and misleading claims about me,” she wrote in an Instagram post on August 6.
Gollapudi, who has over 4,000 followers, said, “If you come across such posts or others of a similar nature, I humbly request you to report them for misinformation and unauthorized use.”
