Another Indian-origin student found dead in US; 5th case this year

Tribune Web Desk

Chandigarh, February 7

In a series of disturbing incidents, another Indian-origin student was found dead in the US this week, while another Indian IT student was brutally attacked near his house in Chicago on Tuesday.

This is the fifth case of student found dead in the US this year.

Sameer Kamath, a doctoral candidate at Indiana's Purdue University, was found dead at a nature reserve on Monday evening.

The 23-year-old had completed his master's degree in Mechanical Engineering in August 2023 and held a US citizenship. He was set to complete his doctoral programme in 2025.

According to The Purdue Exponent, a news agency independent of the university, Sameer Kamath, 23, a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering, was found dead in Warren County on Monday, the mechanical engineering head Eckhard Groll announced on Tuesday.

In another incident, Indian IT student Syed Mazahir Ali was chased and brutally attacked by unidentified men near his house in the US city of Chicago on Sunday, February 4.

There were videos posted on social media and in one video posted on X, Ali can be seen with a bloodied nose and face and blood stains on his clothes as he describes his ordeal.

Ali, who moved to the US from Hyderabad about six months ago, told ABC7 Eyewitness News that one of the attackers pointed a gun at him.

Video surveillance shows Ali walking to his home at night with a packet in his hand when the three men chase him when he was punched by the men in the eye and hit on the face, ribs and back. The ABC7 report said he was taken to a local hospital where he was treated for several cuts and bruises.

Ali is pursuing Masters in information technology from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Last week, 19-year-old Shreyas Reddy Beniger, a student at the Lindner School of Business in Ohio State was found dead. However, local authorities have ruled out foul play.

Another Indian student, identified as Neel Acharya at Purdue University, Indiana, was confirmed dead days after being reported missing on January 28.

The incident comes just days after 25-year-old Indian student Vivek Saini, who had recently earned an MBA degree in the US, was hammered to death by a homeless drug addict in Georgia state's Lithonia city on January 16.

The horrifying incident was caught on camera when assailant Julian Faulkner, a homeless man, mercilessly struck Saini nearly 50 times on the head with a hammer.

Akul B Dhawan, an 18-year-old at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was found dead last month with signs of hypothermia.

With PTI inputs

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