On May 28th, a 23-year-old Indian student Nisheetha Kandula went missing in the US state of California. Now, the authorities have appealed to the public for help in finding the missing California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) student. Several similar cases involving Indian students have been reported in recent months in the US.
Taking to X on Sunday (2nd June), CSUSB police chief John Guttierez said that Kandula was last seen in Los Angeles and was reported missing on the 30th of May.
“#MissingPersonAlert: California State University, San Bernardino Police along with our partners in #LAPD, is asking anyone with information on the whereabouts of @CSUSBNews Nitheesha Kandula, to contact us at: (909) 537-5165,” Guttierez posted.
#MissingPersonAlert: California State University, San Bernardino Police along with our partners in #LAPD, is asking anyone with information on the whereabouts of @CSUSBNews Nitheesha Kandula, to contact us at: (909) 537-5165. pic.twitter.com/pZaJ35iwuq
— Chief John Guttierez (@guttierez_john) June 1, 2024
According to a written statement from the police, the missing Indian student is 5’6″ tall, weighs around 160 pounds (72.5 kg), and has black hair and eyes. The police said that Nisheetha Kandula was driving a Toyota Corolla that was licenced in California.
“Anyone with information is urged to contact the CSUSB Police Department at (909) 538-7777, or the LAPD’s Southwest Division at (213) 485-2582,” the police statement adds.
Notably, in April this year, a similar incident was reported wherein a 25-year-old Indian student Mohammed Abdul Arfath, who was missing since March this year, was found dead in the US state of Ohio. As reported earlier, Arafat, a native of Hyderabad, went to the US for his Master’s degree in IT from Cleveland University was missing since March 7 this year. His father, Mohd Saleem, said that after ten days, they received a phone call from an unidentified person who claimed Arafat had been kidnapped and demanded a USD 1200 ransom for his release.
This follows a string of strange disappearances and deaths of Indian students in the United States of America.
Earlier on 5th April, it was reported that an Indian student named Uma Satya Sai Gadde died in the US state of Ohio. The cause of death remains unknown.
A 23-year-old engineering student at Boston University, Paruchuri Abhijit, was found dead in an abandoned car on 11th March this year. He hailed from the Burripalem in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. Abhijit is believed to have been murdered by unidentified assailants.
On 27th February, Indian dancer Amarnath Ghosh was murdered by unidentified men while he was out in the St Louis Academy neighbourhood.
On 2nd February, a 41-year-old Indian-origin man named Vivek Taneja succumbed to his injuries after being grievously assaulted by an unidentified man in downtown Washington in the United States.
A day earlier, Shreyas Reddy Beningeri, who had been pursuing a graduate degree from Lindner School of Business, died in Ohio.
One Neel Acharya, an Indian student pursuing a double master’s at the Purdue University in Indiana, went missing on 31st January. Later, his dead body was recovered by the police.
Earlier on 20th January, Akul Dhawan, an 18-year-old Indian-American student, was found dead near the University of Illinois. He reportedly froze to death after being denied entry into a nightclub.
Another Indian student Vivek Saini was brutally killed with repeated blows from a hammer by a homeless man inside a store in Lithonia, Georgia, US on January 16th this year.
Two students named Nikesh and Gattu Dinesh were found dead in their room in Connecticut in the United States on 14th January 2024. They were students of the Sacred Heart University and believed to have died due to ‘carbon monoxide poisoning’.
Besides the 11 cases of mysterious death, an Indian student named Sameer Kamath committed suicide on 5th February while another student named Venkataramana Pittala died in a jet-ski accident.
