Washington: A second American teenager, charged in the killing of Indian doctoral student Abhijit Mahato at Duke University, has been indicted by a grand jury.

Mahato, a 29-year-old student from Jharkhand, was gunned down at point blank range with a shot in the forehead even as a pillow was tightly held against his face. The jury indicted Lawrence Alvin Lovette on one count of murder and another of robbery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the January 18 murder of Mahato.

The 17-year-old Lovette, who is now being held against a $3 million bond, was the second person to be charged in Mahato's killing. He was picked up last Thursday in connection with the another student Eve Carson's killing and is being held without bond in the murder of Mahato.

In the court, the Durham County Assistant District Attorney Tracey Cline maintained that a cell phone and an iPod found from Lovette's possession, when he was detained in Carson's death, linked him to Mahato. Stephen Lavance Oates Jr, 19, was indicted in Mahato murder case last month.

Source : PTI