Federal Prison Sentence For HoCo Man Who Threatened Legislator

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — A West Friendship man who threatened a Maryland Congressman has been sentenced to federal prison and 100 hours of community service.

U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Sidhartha Kumar Mathur, 35, to two years’ probation, including eight weekends to be spent in the federal bureau of prisons and six months of home detention with electronic monitoring for making false statements to federal agents, which relates to the death threats he sent to a member of Congress representing Maryland.

In December 2020, Mathur sent a threatening webmail message through a congressional representative’s website. He used the name and previous address of a former classmate and neighbor for the webmail contact information.

In his message Mathur said, “I will kill you and blow up your office if you try to take my vote away” and “I know where you and your family lives," according to his guilty plea.

Court records show he left a threatening message on the congressman’s office voicemail, too, in which he said, “If you even mess with my vote, I’m going to come and slit your throat and I’ll kill your family.”

During an interview with special agents of the United States Capitol Police, Mathur confirmed the phone number used to place the threatening voicemail belonged to him and that he called the congressional member out of anger.

As detailed in his plea agreement, Mathur admitted the name and address he used was that of a former neighbor and classmate. However, Mathur falsely denied responsibility for the webmail threat submitted in that person's name.

The agents reiterated that providing false statements to federal agents was a felony offense. Mathur continued to falsely deny responsibility for the threatening webmail messages written in someone else's name. When given a final opportunity to correct his false statement, Mathur again falsely denied making the webmail threat.