‘5 Indian students in US killed in last 8 weeks’: MP demands investigation, student safety measures

NEW DELHI: Five Indian students have been killed in the United States (US) in the last two months, claimed Saket Gokhale, Member of Parliament, and asked the government to take measures for the protection of Indian students in the US.

The MP wrote a letter to the external affairs minister S Jaishankar and demanded responses on steps being taken by the government to ensure speedy investigation and prosecution of accused in the student death cases and measures being taken to ensure personal security of students.

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In the letter, the minister brought attention to the incident where a West Bengal student Amarnath Ghosh was shot dead under ‘unknown’ circumstances in St Louis, Missouri, US. Gokhale appealed to Jaishankar to ensure that the Indian Embassy in the US and the Consulate General of India in Chicago help family and friends bring back his mortal remains.

The MP argued that Ghosh’s death is not one such incident, in fact, five students including Vivek Taneja in Washington, Vivek Saini in Lithonia, Akul Dhawan in Urbana-Champaign, and Neel Acharya and Sameer Kamarth at Purdue University were killed in separate incidents.

Indian students in US

“All of the above deaths of the Indian students have happened under unexplained and mysterious circumstances and in almost all the above cases, friends and families of the deceased Indian students have alleged lack of action by the local police departments,” Gokhale alleged.

The MP also expressed shock over the death of Indian student Jaahnavi Kandula who died after she was hit by a speeding car police in Seattle, WA. He found more deplorable the fact that a police officer was allegedly seen laughing over her death and saying that her life was limited. The MP informed that the police officer has been cleared of all charges due to lack of evidence.

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Gokhale found it concerning that these student deaths in the US are not being taken up at the highest democratic levels by our government. The minister stated that the US authorities have not taken any accountability regarding the killings and called the incident of police officer killing student ‘inexcusable’.

“It is also unclear as to why the Govt of India not requested the respective state govts in the US to allow Indian investigators to work alongside their local counterparts in these killings of Indian students,” Saket Gokhale further wrote.