The Indian Panorama

Tag: Vivek Saini

  • Indian Consulate, New York says: Working with authorities to find missing Hyderabad student

    Indian Consulate, New York says: Working with authorities to find missing Hyderabad student

    NEW YORK CITY (TIP): The Consulate General of India in New York is working with local law enforcement authorities to find a 25-year-old Indian student in Cleveland who has been missing since the beginning of this month. Mohammad Abdul Arfath, hailing from Nacharam, Hyderabad, arrived in the US in May last year to pursue a Masters in IT from Cleveland University.

    His father Mohammed Saleem said that Arfath last spoke to him on March 7. Since then, he has not been in touch with his family and his mobile phone is switched off.

    The Indian Consulate said in a post on X that it is in touch with Arfath’s family and authorities in the US. “We are working with local law enforcement agencies to find him at the earliest.” Arfath’s roommates in the US informed his father that they have lodged a missing persons complaint with Cleveland Police.

    On March 19, Arfath’s family received a call from an unidentified person who claimed that Arfath had been kidnapped allegedly by a gang selling drugs and demanded USD 1,200 to release him.

    The caller also threatened to sell Arfath’s kidneys if the ransom wasn’t paid, his father said.

    “Yesterday, I got a call from an unknown number, and the caller informed me that my son has been kidnapped and demanded money. The caller did not mention the mode of payment but just asked to pay the amount. When I asked the caller to allow us to talk to my son but he refused,” Saleem told PTI in Hyderabad.

    Arfath’s parents have requested the central government to take necessary measures to bring back their son safely. Saleem has also written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in this regard.

    The incident is the latest in a string of troubling cases pertaining to the safety and security of Indian students in the US. Since the beginning of this year, several cases of deaths of Indian and Indian-origin students have caused alarm and concern among the community.

    Earlier this week, the Consulate had posted on X about the death of Abhijeeth Paruchuru, a 20-year-old Indian student, in Boston. Paruchuru’s parents, based in Connecticut, had been in direct touch with detectives and initial investigations into his death had ruled out any foul play.

    Indian-American Sameer Kamath, 23, a student at Purdue University was found dead in a nature preserve in Indiana in February. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to authorities.

    In January, 18-year-old Akul Dhawan, a student of the University of Illinois was found unresponsive outside a campus building. Investigations revealed that he died due to hypothermia. Authorities said acute alcohol intoxication and prolonged exposure to extremely cold temperatures contributed to his death. In another incident in January, 25-year-old Indian student Vivek Saini was hammered to death by a homeless drug addict in Georgia.

  • Unsafe in the US : Five Indian students dead in five weeks

    The fabled American dream is turning out be a nightmare for one Indian student after another. Syed Mazahir Ali was chased and attacked by unidentified men near his house in Chicago on February 4. The incident has left Ali, who moved to the US from Hyderabad about six months ago, traumatized. The attack comes less than three weeks after another student, Vivek Saini, who had recently received an MBA degree, was hammered to death by a homeless drug addict in Lithonia (Georgia). Sameer Kamath of Purdue University, Indiana, was found dead this week; according to the authorities, he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Another Purdue student, Neel Acharya, was confirmed dead days after being reported missing, while Akul Dhawan, an 18-year-old who was studying at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was found dead last month. The death of Shreyas Reddy (19) was reported last week.

    The succession of tragic incidents has raised concerns about the safety and security of Indian students in America. These youngsters, whose parents have spent huge sums of money to send them to the US, are being targeted by petty criminals and drug users/traffickers. There are reports that stress caused by the lack of employment opportunities is pushing some of them to the brink — they are taking drugs or trying to end their lives.

    The worrisome situation calls for greater efforts by the Indian community and diplomatic staff in America to reach out to the students and help them cope with myriad problems. They also need to build pressure on law enforcement agencies to probe the cases in a time-bound manner. Exemplary action against the culprits, including those in uniform, can send out a strong message of zero tolerance to crime. Last year’s Seattle incident, in which a police officer made insensitive remarks over the death of university student Jaahnavi Kandula, showed that the rot ran deep. The US media, which is quick to highlight any kind of hate crime in India, needs to give due attention to the plight of Indian students.
    (Tribune, India)