(Adds details from complaint)
By Jimmy Lovaas
SEATTLE, June 19 (Reuters) - A University of Washington student was charged in federal court on Thursday with making interstate threats over Web comments pledging to kill women and praising another college student who went on a killing spree in California in May.
Keshav Mukund Bhide, 23, was arrested on suspicion of harassment and cyber stalking on Saturday at his dormitory on the university's Seattle campus, police said. He is due to appear in federal court on Thursday afternoon.
He came to the university on a foreign student visa, according to court papers. The court papers did not make clear his nationality.
Bhide was taken into custody because of his online comments on YouTube and Google+, which investigators found included praise for California mass-shooter Elliot Rodger, police said.
Rodger, 22, last month killed six University of California, Santa Barbara, students and wounded 13 other people before taking his own life in the college town of Isla Vista. He left behind videos and writings expressing sexual frustration and his plans to kill women.
"Everything Elliot did is perfectly justified," Bhide wrote under an account with the name "Foss Dark," according to court documents.
Police say he also chatted with other Web users, including one who asked his name and residence.
"I live in Seattle and go to UW, that's all (I'll) give you. (I'll) make sure I kill only women, and many more than what Elliot accomplished," he replied, according to court papers.
Bhide told FBI agents and police who went to his home that he was angry with YouTube videos created by internet users critical of Rodger, according to the federal complaint.
"Bhide stated that he, like Rodger, had a hard time socializing at school and had few friends," an FBI special agent stated in the complaint.
Earlier this week, local prosecutors declined to file charges against Bhide, turning the case over to their federal counterparts. The criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court said Bhide's threatening Web comments involved a violation of federal law because his electronic communication traveled out of state.
Bhide posted the comments online between May 31 and June 9, threatening to "cause serious physical injury or death" to women at the University of Washington and to two other women online, the criminal complaint said. (Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Eric Beech and Will Dunham)
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