Keeping eye on developments: MEA over murder of Indian-origin student in US' Indiana
Oct 07, 2022
New Delhi [India], October 7 : Calling the death of a 20-year-old India-origin student Varun Manish Chheda at Purdue University campus unfortunate, India on Friday said that it is tracking the developments of the murder case.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi called the incident 'unfortunate' and stated further that India is keeping an eye on developments of the case.
"It's a very unfortunate incident. I think the perpetrator has been arrested. We are keeping an eye on the developments," Bagchi said during a regular press briefing.
Varun Manish Chheda was killed on Wednesday allegedly by his 22-year-old roommate who is in under police custody for investigation.
Chheda was a 2020 graduate of Park Tudor, as per the Fox59, a tv station.
Chheda's roommate, 22-year-old Ji Min "Jimmy" Sha, from Korea is now in police custody and is the prime suspect in the case. Sha is a junior cybersecurity major and international student from Korea.
At 12:45 am on Wednesday Sha called 911 to alert police about the death, Purdue University Police Chief Lesley Wiete said during a news conference Wednesday morning, reported NBC. However, no further details of the call and how the victim died in his room on the first floor of McCutcheon Hall were disclosed.
The police are treating the death as a homicide case.
The chief and the Tippecanoe County Coroner Office identified the deceased as Varun Manish Chheda, a 20-year-old senior from Indianapolis who was studying data science.
According to the Police Chief, the suspect has not been booked yet. She said that at the time of the 911 call, only Chheda and Sha were in the room at the time.
"I believe this was unprovoked and senseless," she said, noting neither roommate was asleep when Purdue President Mitch Daniels called the news "as tragic an event as we can imagine happening on our campus and our hearts and thoughts go out to all of those affected by this terrible event."
According to its website, Purdue has about 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled for the fall semester incident that happened, media reports said.
"I write to inform you that early this morning, one of our students was killed in his residence hall room. The suspect, the victim's roommate, called police to report the incident and is in custody," a message from the University's President read.
We do not have all the details yet, he added and said that Purdue University Police Department is conducting a thorough investigation of this incident so that they can learn more about what transpired.
"As is always the case, staff from our Office of the Dean of Students, our Residence Halls, and clinicians at Purdue's Counseling and Psychological Services are providing support and are available to anyone who needs or wants their care," the message added.
