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Physician Anderson under treatment by psychiatrist

Kevin Paul Anderson, found guilty of murdering his lover Deepti Gupta, is being treated by a jail psychiatrist for nightmares.

His marriage is on the brink.

And the house of the 42-year-old wealthy physician is being foreclosed.

Friends and well-wishers of Anderson, and newspaper reports, offer a bleak picture of Anderson, not long ago a well-known physician in Pasadena, California.

Anderson is planning to appeal his 20-year sentence.

But Professor Vijay Gupta, husband of Deepti, does not feel Anderson is suffering much. He had pleaded with Judge Teri Schwartz before the March 8 sentencing that Anderson should not get lenient treatment. The judge subsequently rejected Anderson's plea that it should not be granted. Anderson had begged for a lighter sentence, offering to work free for poor people, after his release from prison.

"While incarceration is the automatic penalty for wrongdoing, I wonder if we have lost something in society when people who may be able to do good and help amend a mistake are not given that opportunity," Anderson wrote.

His letter also said he was under great stress on Novmber 11, 1999, when he strangled 33-year-old Deepti. He says he snapped when she threatened his daughter, saying she knew which school the girl was attending.

Gupta, who has steadfastly maintained that his wife was lured into the affair, is getting ready with a civil suit against Anderson. It does not matter if Anderson cannot give him even a cent, Gupta has said, but he wants to rehabilitate his wife's reputation by showing once again what a conniving and overbearing person Anderson is.

He calls Anderson "a sexual predator" whose attitude "is like that of dictators and fascists who feel justified in killing people who do not agree with them."

Ridiculing Anderson's supporters, Gupta asked judge Schwartz: "Can they give a second chance to Deepti's life?"

"Can they return my daughter's mother, my wife, a sister or a daughter to her widowed mother?" he added.

"If they cannot, then they have absolutely no right to ask for a second chance. Just imagine if all murderers were allowed to get away with one murder on the pretence of a first crime, what kind of chaos will we have around us?"

The child Gupta and Deepti had is about three-years-old.

Gupta is also upset with jailhouse psychiatrist, Rita Hartman, who wrote to the judge that she truly believes Anderson "snapped" when Deepti made threats against his daughter who was eight at the time of the murder.

He is also worried that his wife would be demonised again if Anderson succeeds in appealing his conviction.

Anderson's lawyer Michael Abzug had argued during the trial Deepti Gupta was not an innocent victim.

"The victim willingly participated in an extra-marital affair during which she chose to ignore the feelings and well-being of her husband and daughter," Abzug also wrote to the judge a few days before the sentencing.

"Professor Gupta's distress and humiliation throughout these proceedings was immeasurably increased by his recognition that while he and his child are innocent victims, his wife was not," Abzug also said.

Vijay Gupta, who says he relives his wife's tragedy every day, draws attention to the letter he wrote to the court before Anderson was sentenced. The letter, he says, shows his wife was not irresponsible, consumed by passion - and looking for Anderson to save her from what Abzug described as an unhappy marriage.

"Deepti, besides being my loving wife, was the mother of our now three-year-old daughter, a wonderful sister, a community hero, and a responsible daughter,'' Gupta wrote.

He is angry at the suggestion Anderson was also devoted to his profession and community - and hence should have got lighter sentence.

His position on Anderson will not change from what he wrote to the judge.

"Despite Kevin Anderson and his family's arrogant attempts to plead for manslaughter, a jury of 12 men and women found him guilty of a second degree murder," Gupta continued.

"This result is already lucky for him, given the abundance of evidence that pointed to a premeditated crime, or murder in the first degree."

People like Anderson do not deserve a second chance: "Just imagine if all murderers were allowed to get away with one murder on the pretense of a first crime, what kind of chaos will we have around us!"

Gupta is not convinced Anderson is truly remorseful, either.

An engineering professor at UCLA, Gupta attended most of the trial even though his friends and well-wishers asked him not to do so.

"Kevin Anderson smiled and smirked throughout the trial, whether listening to testimony of others or taking the stand himself. I cannot forget the glow on his face when the jury verdict was read," Gupta read. The prosecution wanted the jury to convict Anderson on premeditated, first degree murder but he was guilty only on second-degree murder.

"Throughout the trial he very conveniently put Deepti on the stand, painting a web of lies in an attempt to justify his crime," Gupta continued.

"More sickening than his lies was the manner in which he delivered them to the jury. Clapping his hands and raising his voice in anger to suggest how everything was building up to a point that led him to commit the crime, suggesting vigorously that Dr Deepti Gupta deserved to be murdered."

Kevin Anderson is a coward beyond imagination, Gupta continued.

"He used his daughter to shield himself from his murderous crime. He suggested during his trial that he was trying to protect her. Your honour, this is the same man who bought the book How To Reduce Child Care Payment in the State of California."

How can someone who does not even want to pay for his daughter's care, commit murder in her name, Gupta said.

The day before she was murdered on November 11, 1999, Deepti had finished all her requirements to become a fully-licensed paediatrician in the State of California, and was certified by the American Board of Paediatrics in her very first attempt, Gupta says as he discusses how their eight-year-old American Dream became a nightmare.

"The most innocent and devastated victim of this crime is my daughter," he writes. "Every time I look into her eyes, I see a three-year-old searching endlessly for her mother. Every morning she gets up and kisses the portrait of her mother that is by her bedside twice and sometimes thrice before proceeding with her morning chores.

"Till today, when I drop her off to her school, she begs me to stay with her. Every day, I need to reassure her that I will surely come back and not disappear like her mom."

Gupta recalled how the teachers at the UCLA Fernald Child Care Center have made a portfolio of the cards she makes for her mother. The little girl dictated a letter to her mother: "I miss you mommy. I have a flower for you mommy. Mommy, I miss you mom. Mommy, I love you. I want you to come back. I want to be with you, mommy. I want you to play with me. I want you to come to my school with me. I know she can come back because I love her. I want mommy to come back and take me to the zoo, and horsy, and tootoo train. I want my mommy to play with my daddy."

"The hardest thing was the celebration of my daughter's third birthday," he continued.

"Every minute Divya had only one thing to ask: `Where is mommy? Can you please ask her to come so that I can cut the cake'."

"What did this child do to Kevin Anderson?" Gupta asked.

"Nothing. Yet, he has robbed her forever of the most natural, pleasurable, powerful, and everlasting experiences of all -- a mother's love."

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