First Extradition From India Since 2017 Ends In 10-Year Sentence For Ganesh Shenoy

Photo: NCDA

India-West News Desk

NEW YORK, NY – The March 6 sentencing of Ganesh Shenoy marks a historic conclusion to a two-decade pursuit of justice which happened after the first extradition of an individual from India to the United States since 2017.

The 54-year-old was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a fatal high-speed crash that occurred on Long Island in 2005. Shenoy had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the second degree on February 6, finally answering for an incident that devastated a local family before he fled the country.

The tragedy unfolded on April 11, 2005, in Hicksville. Prosecutors stated that Shenoy was driving at twice the speed limit when he ran a red light at the intersection of Levittown Parkway and Old County Road. His vehicle slammed into a car driven by 44-year-old Philip Mastropolo with such force that Mastropolo’s vehicle was sent skidding into a stopped Freightliner box truck. First responders pronounced Mastropolo dead at the scene. While Shenoy was taken to a hospital for treatment following the collision, he refused further medical attention and left the facility.

Despite the fact that authorities had already seized his New York State driver’s license and Indian passport, Shenoy managed to board a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Mumbai just 14 days after the crash. He remained in India for 20 years, evading trial until he was successfully extradited back to the United States last September. Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly addressed the long delay in accountability following the sentencing.

“For two decades, Philip Mastropolo’s wife and children have carried the weight of his loss and the burden of knowing this cowardly defendant hid half a world away. They waited for accountability and for the day when Ganesh Shenoy was finally brought to justice. Today was that day,” Donnelly told ABC News.

The emotional toll on the victims was laid bare in the courtroom through the testimony of Mastropolo’s daughter, Krystina Morrone. She detailed the sacrifices her father made for his loved ones, noting that her dad worked two jobs so her mother could stay home with her brother who had leukemia. Addressing the defendant directly, she stated that he was a man who deserved to grow old with his family and told Shenoy, “you did not kill a good man, you killed a great man.”