Deaths of Indian-origin persons raise safety concerns

Hyderabad: The deaths of Indian-origin persons mostly students in the United States have raised safety concerns in India. So far 11 people died this year.

Last week, an Indian student Uma Satya Sai Gadde, died in Ohio, and police are investigating the case. He was studying at a college in United States .

The police confirmed his death but did not divulge much information about it. In March, a 34-year-old trained classical dancer from India, Amarnath Ghosh, who hailed from Kolkata, was shot dead in St Louis, Missouri. In the same month, Abhijeeth Paruchuri, a 20- year-old Indian student, who hailed from Guntur in AP, died under suspicious circumstances in Boston. His body was found in an abandoned car. On March 9, Venkataramana Pittala, (27) from Telangana was killed in a Jet Ski collision.

He was pursuing a Master’s Degree from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Sameer Kamath, a 23- year-old Indian-American student at Purdue University, was found dead in Williamsport, Indiana on February 5.

However, later the investigation claimed Sameer, died from a selfinflicted gunshot wound to the head. On February 2, Vivek Taneja, a 41-year-old Indian-origin IT executive, died during an assault outside a restaurant in Washington. Taneja was allegedly involved in a verbal argument with another man who turned physical and he was knocked to the ground and hit his head on the pavement.

In January, the death of another Indian student, Shreyas Reddy Benigeri, was reported from the Ohio region. According to the Indian Embassy in New York, the police investigation was underway but no foul play was suspected as of now.

In another tragedy, the same month, 25-year-old Indian student Vivek Saini, from Haryana, who had just completed his MBA in the US, was hammered to death by a homeless drug addict in Georgia. In January again, 18- year-old Akul Dhawan, a University of Illinois student was found unresponsive outside a campus building. Investigations revealed that he died due to hypothermia.