Grand jury indicts former MU graduate student

COLUMBIA—A former MU graduate student and employee was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for attempting to send obscene material to a minor via the Internet. Akshaya Kumar Swain, 29, of Columbia was charged with attempting to send the material to a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl in November 2007, a news release from U.S. Attorney John Wood’s office said.

The indictment also contains an allegation of forfeiture, which would require Swain, an Indian citizen, to give the government any property that might have been used to commit the offense. That includes laptops and personal computers.

Wood, whose district covers the western half of Missouri, said in the release that the charge in the indictment is an accusation, not evidence of guilt. Any evidence behind the charge would have to be presented to a federal trial jury. The Boone County Sheriff’s Department, Columbia Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force carried out the investigation.