INDIANAPOLIS — Purdue University is fighting a subpoena for it to turn over mental health records for Ji Min Sha, a 22-year-old student who is charged with killing his roommate.
Purdue filed court documents this week that said the subpoena is not valid and the university argued that Sha has not given it permission to disclose his mental records.
Sha's attorneys filed a motion in November seeking an insanity defense to determine Sha's competency to stand trial.
Prosecutors argue that by making an insanity plea, Sha waived his right to not consent to the release of his records.
However, Purdue says there's no law stating it has to release Sha's records because he made an insanity plea and that the university cannot release those records without a specific court order saying they must do so.
The university is asking the court to throw out the subpoena. If the court determines the university must comply with the subpoena, Purdue is requesting it issue an order "expressly authorizing" its release of the records.
Sha is accused of killing his roommate, 20-year-old Varun Manish Chheda, of Indianapolis, in October.
According to court documents, Sha made a 911 call and said he had just killed his roommate with a knife. Responding officers found Sha in the room with blood on his clothing and body.
Officers found Chheda dead in a chair. A folding knife was found on the floor. A preliminary autopsy found Chheda's cause of death was determined to be multiple sharp force traumatic injuries to Chheda's head and neck.
Chheda was a junior at the university and studied data science. He was also in the Purdue Honors College.
He was a National Merit Scholarship Award Winner and a national runner-up in the Science Bowl Competition in 2016.
Sha is a junior who is studying cybersecurity at Purdue. Police said Sha is an international student from South Korea.