Who is Judge Arun Subramanian? All you need to know about Indian-American overseeing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex assault case

Music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is set to go on trial for racketeering and sex trafficking on May 5 next year. The decision was announced by Judge Arun Subramanian during a court hearing on Thursday. The federal Judge also said that the "defendant will remain in custody" since no new requests had been filed by his lawyers.

Arun Srinivas Subramanian was appointed as the District Judge for the Southern District of New York in March 2023. He is the first South Asian to serve on this Bench.

Subramanian is slated to preside over the trial after Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr recused himself from the case.

Arun Subramanian was born in Pittsburgh to Indian immigrant parents in 1979 and completed his BA in Computer Science and English at Case Western Reserve University. He went on to earn his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School — where he was recognized as a James Kent and Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and served as the Executive Articles Editor for the Columbia Law Review.

He began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Dennis Jacobs on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He had later worked for Judge Gerard E Lynch in the Southern District of New York and clerked for late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He was a partner at Susman Godfrey LLC in New York City until 2023 and focused on commercial and bankruptcy law.

Details shared by his former law firm indicate that Subramanian has successfully recovered more than a billion dollars for several public and private entities that have been victims of fraud and other illegal activities.

Allegations have been building against the Grammy winner since last year, when singer Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, alleged Combs subjected her to more than a decade of coercion by physical force and drugs as well as a 2018 rape.

A spate of similarly lurid civil lawsuits since have painted a picture of Combs as a violent man who used his celebrity status to prey on women.

(With inputs from agencies)