India calls for action after video shows US cop laughing over Andhra Pradesh student's death

Houston, September 13

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India said it has “strongly” taken up the case of its national Jaahnavi Kandula with authorities in the US, following the release of a bodycam video in which a cop is heard joking and laughing about the Indian student’s death by a police patrol car this year.

In the brief clip, Seattle Police Officers’ Guild Vice President Daniel Auderer is seen driving and can be heard saying, “she had limited value”, in a call with the guild’s president, Mike Solan, The Seattle Times reported this week.

The Consulate General of India in San Francisco on Wednesday termed the incident as “deeply troubling”.

Meanwhile, a Seattle police watchdog agency has launched an investigation after bodycam footage emerged of a police officer joking about the death of a 23-year-old Indian student after she was struck by a speeding police patrol car earlier this year, media reports said.

Jaahnavi Kandula was killed in January after she was struck by a police vehicle driven by Officer Kevin Dave. He was driving 74 mph (more than 119 kmph) on the way to a report of an overdose, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Recent reports including in media of the handling of Ms Jaahnavi Kandula’s death in a road accident in Seattle in January are deeply troubling. We have taken up the matter strongly with local authorities in Seattle & Washington State as well as senior officials in Washington DC

— India in SF (@CGISFO) September 13, 2023

In bodycam footage released on Monday by the Seattle Police Department, Officer Daniel Auderer laughed about the deadly crash and dismissed any implication Dave might be at fault or that a criminal investigation was necessary.

In the clip, Auderer, the vice-president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, was on a call with the guild’s president, Mike Solan. He laughed several times, saying at one point, “Yeah, just write a cheque.” “Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26 anyway,” Auderer said in the video, misstating Kandula’s age.

“She had limited value,” he was quoted as saying.

Auderer said Dave’s vehicle had been “going 50” and that “that’s not out of control”, a news agency reported.

A police investigation report referred to prosecutors for review last month said that Dave had been driving at 74 mph, and Kandula from Andhra Pradesh was thrown more than 100 feet after the impact. “That’s not reckless for a trained driver,” Auderer said in the video, adding he doesn’t believe “she was thrown 40 feet either”, the report said. — PTI

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