New York: A 22-year-old Indian student has been found dead in California, six days after he went missing.
Saketh Sreenivasaiah, a student from Karnataka pursuing Chemical and Biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, went missing on February 9.
The Indian consulate in San Francisco confirmed that police recovered his body, while assuring all necessary assistance for the repatriation of his body to India at the earliest. "We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones during this profoundly difficult time," the statement read.
A citywide search around Lake Anza and the Berkeley Hills areas was launched when Sreenivasaiah went missing after being last seen around a kilometre away from the campus. Later, a backpack containing his passport and laptop was found near a residence close to Tilden Regional Park, also near the campus.
Community members mobilized online to aid the search for Sreenivasaiah, with a Reddit thread discussing concerted efforts to locate him.
Sreenivasaiah, an IIT Madras alumnus, was pursuing a master's degree at Berkeley. He went to school at Bengaluru's Sri Vani Education Centre.
Sreenivasaiah was among the six to hold a patent for inventing a "microchannel cooling system for hyperloop and a method thereof" per his LinkedIn profile. He had been described as a person with a quick wit, humility, brilliance and loyalty.
Hours after the student was confirmed dead by the Indian consulate in California, Saketh's roommate and friend Baneet Singh took to LinkedIn to write, “My Berkeley roommate, Saketh Sreenivasaiah, has been found dead by suicide in Lake Anza near the Berkeley hills, according to police.”
Singh also said that he was working with authorities to fly his family to the US from India on an emergency visa.
“Life as an International student is tough, man," Singh said.
Sreenivsaiah’s mood had shifted just two weeks earlier, according to the post, and he simply “stopped caring.”
“There were no signs of anything until the last 2 weeks, when he started eating less and engaging less, only surviving on chips and cookies.”
Singh also said that Sreenivasaih had invited him to Lake Anza on January 21, but he was “too lazy” to go adding, “Little did I know that would be the same place he’d take his life."
“I didn’t expect this from a friend who lived, ate, travelled, laughed and joked with me,” Singh wrote.
He also recalled the last conversation he had with his roommate after saying that he found Sreenivasaiah coming back from class wearing a red bathrobe. When he asked why he was wearing a robe to the class, Sreenivasaih said, “I’ve stopped caring, man. I'm cold and don’t care what anyone thinks of me.”
"He was always up to something silly," he wrote. "Now I know that he really meant it."
