Indian student, Neel Acharya who was pursuing a double major at the prestigious Purdue University in the US state of Indiana has been confirmed dead, the University said. Neel went missing on Sunday. The exact reason for death is not known yet.
Tippecanoe County Coroner’s Office officials were called around 11:30 a.m. on Sunday to 500 Allison Road in West Lafayette for a possible dead body. Upon arrival, a “college-aged male” was found deceased outside Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories on Purdue’s campus.
Expressing his condolences, Chris Clifton, interim head of the university’s Computer Science Department, in an email to the department wrote, “It is with great sadness that I inform you that one of our students Neel Acharya has passed away. The leadership in the Department of Computer Science expresses our profound sorrow for his passing. I am deeply saddened by his loss. My condolences go out to his friends family and all affected”.
Who was Neel Acharya?
Acharya was an Honors Student studying Computer Science and Data Science at Purdue University in Indiana.
As per his LinkedIn profile which is now memorialized as a tribute to Neel Acharya’s professional legacy stated that he had completed his schooling from St. Mary’s School in Pune in the year 2022.
He had scored 97.2 percent in ICSE exams i.e. Class 10 exams and 95 percent in Class 12. His profile also stated that he had pursued his summer internship at Reliance Jio Infocom Limited and had also worked as a Project Intern at Lydnow Edutech Pvt Ltd.
He had also participated in and won the Cozmo Clench competition at Techfest 2018-19 hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).
Neel worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at Purdue University and possessed skills like C (Programming Language), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Research Skills, Python (Programming Language), and Generative Art.
Earlier, his mother Goury Acharya, had posted on X about Neel missing. She wrote, “Our son Neel Acharya has been missing since yesterday January 28 (12:30 AM EST) He is studying at Purdue University in the US. He was last seen by the Uber driver who dropped him off at Purdue University. We are looking for any info on him. Please help us if you know anything.”
Responding to her post, India’s Consulate General in Chicago, said: “(The) Consulate is in touch with Purdue University authorities and also with Neel’s family. The consulate will extend all possible support and help.”
Indian students killed in US
Acharya’s demise comes after the news of the grisly murder of Vivek Saini, another Indian student who had recently earned an MBA degree in the US and was hammered to death by a homeless drug addict in Georgia state’s Lithonia city, making it the second student death in the US in the past few weeks.
In another incident, two Indian students were found dead under suspicious conditions at their Connecticut accommodation in the US, news agency PTI had reported on 15 January. One of the two students who died, G Dinesh (22), was from Wanaparthy in Telangana and Nikesh (21) was from Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh. The students had come to the US for their higher studies nearly a month ago.
As many as 403 Indian students studying abroad have died since 2018 and the reasons include natural causes, accidents and medical conditions, Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs V Muraleedharan told the Rajya Sabha last month. Canada topped the chart with 91 deaths reported since 2018, followed by the United Kingdom with 48 deaths, Russia with 40 deaths, the United States of America (USA) with 36 deaths and Australia with 35 deaths, the minister had said.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)
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Published: 31 Jan 2024, 10:38 AM IST