Sai Varshith Kandula, an Indian-origin man in the United States (US), was on Thursday (January 16) sentenced to eight years in prison after he crashed a rental truck into the barriers protecting the White House.

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Kandula, a resident of Missouri, was inspired by his fascination with Nazi ideology and carried out the attack on May 22, 2023. 

Kandula, 20, nearly struck two people standing next to a park bench when he steered a U-Haul box truck onto a sidewalk and towards metal bollards that prevent vehicles from entering Lafayette Square, which is located north of the White House. 

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The 20-year-old man retrieved a Nazi flag from a backpack post the crash.

The sentence

Prosecutors said on Thursday that Kandula wanted to attack and destroy the US government. "He wanted to eliminate the democratic process in America and replace the government with a Nazi-style dictatorship."

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Citing court records, a report by the news agency Associated Press said that US District Judge Dabney Friedrich also sentenced Kandula to three years of supervised release following his prison term and ordered him to pay nearly $57,000 in restitution.

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Kandula's defence lawyer Scott Rosenblum said that his client was suffering from schizophrenia and was overwhelmed by delusional thoughts. 

“He’s amenable to treatment, understands its necessity, and recognizes an illness produced the acts that led to his current circumstances,” Rosenblum added.

Kandula planned the attack for weeks

Prosecutors said that Kandula planned the attack for weeks before he took a flight from St Louis to Washington DC, only hours before the crash.

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“He specifically praised Adolf Hitler. And it wasn’t just words — when his truck was disabled in the attack, the first thing he did was unfurl the flag of Nazi Germany,” prosecutors added. 

(With inputs from agencies)