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Murdered Doc's Husband Out To Ruin Killer

"It does not matter if he has no money, I want to have the single penny he may have," professor Vijay Gupta says, measuring each word as he discusses his civil suit against Dr. Kevin Paul Anderson.

Anderson is the man who murdered Vijay's wife, Dr. Deepti Gupta, over a year ago, after hearing that she was carrying his child and had no intention of aborting it.

Today, Anderson, 42, one of the wealthiest physicians in Pasadena, California, is pleading his own case because he says he is completely broke, and cannot afford a lawyer. But Anderson is also turning increasingly defiant - and is set to challenge Vijay Gupta's assertion that Deepti Gupta was a very loving and trustworthy wife who was forced to have sex with Anderson.

The civil suit also alleges that Deepti Gupta, 33, mother of a three-year-old girl, died as a result of Anderson's intentional acts and negligence and the victim's family has lost her companionship and support.

Anderson is expected to repeat some of the allegations his lawyer had produced during his criminal trial -- that Vijay Gupta's home was far from a happy home, that the couple who had an arranged marriage in India had used artificial insemination to produce their child, and that Vijay Gupta abused his wife verbally from time to time.

But Gupta says he is prepared to fight Anderson's allegations. The 37-year-old professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA says the civil suit is draining him - financially and emotionally. Apart from his academic work, he has also to look after his daughter Divya. But he feels he owes it to his daughter to clear her mother's reputation.

She was afraid of him (Anderson), she was overpowered by him," he says. "And she hid all this from everyone she loved." She had, however, confided in Pandit Sharma, a godman she had known for several years. But she could not bring herself to heed his urgings - and move away to another hospital, far away from Dr. Anderson.

Whether Anderson is broke or not, professor Gupta says he would go on with the civil suit which is expected to start this month. Anderson is serving a 20-year-sentence for the double murder in one of the most sensational cases in southern California. He was convicted in December of second-degree murder and of knowingly terminating the pregnancy of his unborn son.

Deepti and Anderson, who has been married two times, met in a national forest on November 11, 1999 night where they discussed their extramarital problems. Rejecting the prosecutor's scenario that he had planned to kill her that night, Anderson had testified that he lost his cool when Deepti threatened to harm his wife and daughter.

He said he strangled her with a Snoopy necktie, doused her with gasoline and pushed her and her vehicle off a cliff. But the car did not explode. Alerted by a passerby who saw Anderson pouring gasoline on the vehicle, police arrested Anderson as he was driving off the scene of the murder.

Gupta feels just as Anderson was arrogant during the criminal trial, he would remain adamant and arrogant during the civil suit, too. He hopes, however, that someday when Divya will do her own research, she should find out the truth about her mother. "Deepti was a very caring, very dynamic and very giving person," he says.

As for money, he says, originally he thought he would get whatever was available from Anderson and use it to augment a trust he has created for his daughter. "But can all the money in the world bring back her mother?" he asks. "Even today, after many, many months, she wants to know when her mother will return come from Ram, Ram (heaven)."

Earlier Stories
Physician Anderson under treatment by psychiatrist
LA man gets 20 years for strangling lover
Deepti No Mystery: Murdered Woman's Hubby
Many Unanswered Questions Surround Doctor's Murder

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