Former Rutgers University Student Charged in Busch Campus Arson

An Edison resident and a former Rutgers student has been charged with setting fire in one of the university building in Piscataway last week. Shayam Sridhar, 21, was charged with second-degree aggravated arson after he allegedly set fire to a 30-foot section of the hallway and an adjoining classroom on the second floor of the Allison Road Classroom building on the Busch campus on Dec. 20 afternoon, according to a press release issued by Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey.
According to the Daily Targum, the official student newspaper of Rutgers University, Sridhar had been a student at Rutgers, but left in the fall term, He was set to return to Rutgers in the spring 2015 semester. Carey said a photograph obtained during the time of the investigation identified Sridhar.
In a mass email sent to all Rutgers students Dec. 25, Brian Emmett, lieutenant of the Rutgers University Police Department said a joint investigation with RUPD, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and Edison Police Department resulted in the charges against Sridhar.
The timing of Sridhar’s alleged crime was unfortunate for many students as the fire evacuation at the ARC disrupted 210 students who were taking the “General Biology” final examination in a first floor auditorium, the Daily Targum reported. However, nobody was actually injured, though the fire did damage portions of a second floor hallway and classroom. Carey said the fire caused $250,000 in damages before being extinguished by the building’s overhead sprinkler system.
The police did not divulge a motive for Sridhar’s alleged arson. He is currently being apprehended at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in North Brunswick and is being held for $75,000 bail