Indian-Origin Student Shreyas Reddy Found Dead In US, 4th Case This Year

An Indian origin student was found dead in the US on Thursday in the fourth incident this year and the third in a week.

19-year-old Shreyas Reddy Beniger was a student at the Linder School of Business in Ohio. Officials told NDTV that Shreyas' parents stay in Hyderabad, but he had an American passport.

Authorities have ruled out any foul play or a possibility of a hate crime in the case.

The Indian Mission in New York has expressed anguish and said a probe is on to establish the cause of Beniger's death.

"Deeply saddened by the unfortunate demise of Mr. Shreyas Reddy Benigeri, a student of Indian origin in Ohio. Police investigation is underway. At this stage, foul play is not suspected. The Consulate continues to remain in touch with the family and is extending all possible assistance to them," the Indian Consulate in New York posted on X - earlier known as Twitter.

Earlier this week, Neel Acharya - a student at Purdue University - was found dead. Acharya was reported missing by his mother on Sunday. Hours later, a body was found on the university campus and was identified as that of Acharya.

His mother Gaury had sought help to find him in a post on social media. According to her, he was last seen by an Uber driver who dropped him off at the campus.

In another case, Vivek Saini - a resident of Haryana's Panchkula - was hammered to dead by a homeless man in Georgia's Lithonia on January 16.

Vivek Saini, who was pursuing an MBA degree in Georgia's Lithonia, worked part-time at a convenience store that sheltered a homeless man Julian Faulkner. Saini had reportedly given the man chips, water and even a jacket from time to time. On January 16, the 25-year-old reportedly refused to give Faulkner free food, and this led to the frenzied attack; the man hit the student 50 times, the police said.

Another Indian student, Akul Dhawan, was found dead outside the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in January.

The 18-year-old's autopsy suggested that he died from hypothermia.

However, Dhawan's parents have filed a complaint, accusing the university's police department of negligence and inaction after Akul Dhawan was reported missing. "This is bizarre, that a kid is never found who was just less than a block, like one minute away, sitting there, dead, frozen to death," his father Ish Dhawan said.

There are over 300,000 Indian students in the US. Just in the last two years, 200,000 students have been issued US visas, with a huge influx after Covid.

Experts say mental stress, loneliness and exposure to substance abuse becomes deadly in many cases.