Student from B’lore found dead in US
TIMES NEWS NETWORK Bangalore: Close on the heels of the murders of a PhD student from Jharkhand at North Carolina University and two research scholars from Andhra Pradesh in Louisiana, a student from Bangalore was found dead under mysterious circumstances at his apartment in Kentucky, raising serious questions about the safety of Indian students in the US.
On Thursday, 20-year-old Mahesh Subramannian’s body was received by his family at the Bangalore airport 18 days after his death. He was the only son of P Subramannian and Sharavathi. He was cremated at Hebbal crematorium on Thursday.
A student of Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights town, Mahesh — whose body was found on January 19 — was pursuing his Bachelor in Science with electronics, electrical science and computer science as the major subjects. He was in his final semester and was staying at the Hidden Valley Apartment complex in Campbell County in Kentucky with Sunny, an American student.
Mahesh’s body was found in teh bathroom by his roommate, with whom he had shared a pizza dinner the previous evening. The parents, who hadn’t seen their son for four years, were preparing visa papers to travel to Kentucky when they heard of the death.
The news of the death was conveyed to his parents in Bangalore only on January 21. Mahesh’s uncle who stays in the US was the first one to be informed about the death by the university authorities. Initial post-mortem reports clearly say that the reason for the death is ‘‘unknown’’.
The family members have been asked to wait for six weeks for the final autopsy report. ‘‘The autospy results are pending in relation to the cause of death,’’ stated a letter submitted by Bryan Avance of Avance funeral home and crematory.
‘‘We are kept in the dark. There has never been a proper communication from US authorities regarding my son’s death. Also, the contradictory statements from university, hospital and relatives are puzzling us and we suspect that Mahesh could have been murdered,’’ mother Sharavathi told TOI.
DEATHS ON US CAMPUSES
Jan 18, 2008: Duke University, North Carolina, Abhijit Mahato (29), a PhD student, is found dead in his apartment by two friends. Police clueless about motive
Dec 13, 07: Louisiana State University’s Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma (31) and Kiran Kumar Allam (33), two PhD students from Hyderabad, were found murdered at the latter’s apartment on campus. The varsity said the duo could have been killed in a home invasion, but cops did not find a clear motive
May 7, 07: Texas A&M University-Kingsville, bodies of Pravesh Kumar and Vijay Mahadevan were found in a swimming pool in an apartment building on campus. Police said it was an accident, but suspicions linger
April 16, 2007: Virginia Tech University. First-year architecture student Minal Panchal and Prof G V Loganathan were among 32 gunned down by a Korean student in the worst campus massacre in US history
