Taking strong exception to US authorities’ radio-tagging scores of Indian students duped by a "sham" university in California, India today described it as an "inhuman act" and demanded severe action against those responsible.

“We demand that the US government initiate severe action against those officials responsible for this inhuman act.Indian students are not criminals. The radio collars should be immediately removed, ” External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told reporters here. The students, mostly from Andhra, are facing the prospect of deportation as US authorities last week shut down the Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, a major suburb in San Francisco Bay Area, on charges of a massive immigration fraud.

The university is said to have 1, 555 students, and as many as 95 per cent of these students are Indian nationals. Only about 140 visas were issues directly to Indian students for studying at this university. However, many students it seems had transferred themselves to this university from other universities in the US. This increased the number of students registered at this university.

"The Ministry will extend all help to the students. The parents need not worry since the matter has been taken up with appropriate authorities, " Krishna said. The government would also provide suitable assistance to the affected students if they wished to return home, he said.

Following a raid at the university last week, US federal authorities swooped down on its students for questioning and interrogation.Immigration attorneys and Indian-American community leaders, who have been helping these students, said that scores of them had been detained and released on bond and many of them installed with Intensive Supervision Appearance Programme or radio tags.

Meanwhile, the Indian Embassy in Washington has asked the Obama Administration to ensure that none of the Indian students affected by the immigration scam is victimised. The embassy and its consulates in New York and San Francisco have taken up the matter with US authorities.

The students are frantically knocking at the doors of colleges begging for admission to save their academic careers and avoid deportation.