Washington: An Indian-American nabbed in a dramatic car chase across four counties after robbing a bank of $23,000 has pleaded guilty and could face a sentence up to 25 years.
Anirudh Lakhan Sukhu, 42, crime was compounded as during the fanatical chase his two American accomplices exchanged gunfire with the police, leading to the killing of one of them.
Sukhu and his accomplices appeared to have hit paydirt when they walked into the Bank of America branch in Maryland in the suburbs of the capital last year and forced the teller to part with the greenbills.
But to make the teller to part with the money, one of his accomplices( Sukhu) shot him, according to a statement issued by US Attorney for the District of Maryland, Rod Rosenstein.
Sukhu and his gang members then picked up the cash and sped away in their getaway truck.
But they had not reckoned with an alert passerby, who rang up the state police control room leading to a hot chase across four counties.
During the chase one of Sukhu's American gang members was killed while the two of them were nabbed as they abandoned their getaway truck and tried to flee on foot.
Ending up before a court for the crime a year later, Sukhu pleaded guilty.
Sukhu faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for armed robbery and a maximum sentence of life in prison for using a firearm in a crime of violence, Rosenstein said.
In his confession, Sukhu agreed that he along with Sharman Said, 27 and Omar Burnett, 24, of Burtonsville, had planned the robbery, The Howard County Times reported.
During the robbery, Sukhu, armed with a sawed-off, 12-guage shotgun, entered an office where a bank employee was hiding and ordered the employee to "come out," then he shot the employee in the hand, Rosenstein said.