California: A 23-year-old Indian student went missing in the US State of California last week and police have sought the public's help in locating her, the latest incident in a string of cases involving Indian students in America that has inflamed worries within the community there. The student was identified as Nitheesha Kandula, a California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) student, who went missing on May 28, said police.
She was last seen in Los Angeles and was reported missing on May 30, John Guttierez, Chief of Police, CSUSB, said in a post on X on Sunday. "#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," the police said.
As per reports, Kandula is originally from Hyderabad who came to the United States for better academic and career prospects. She was described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, and around 160 pounds (72.5 kgs) in weight with black hair and black eyes, police said in a written statement. She was possibly driving a 2021 Toyota Corolla with a California license plate, the colour of which was unknown, according to the police statement. This came after 26-year-old Rupesh Chandra Chintakind, an Indian student was reported missing in Chicago last month.
Deaths of Indian students in US
It is worth mentioning more than dozens of Indian students were killed in America this year, where a majority of them died due to attacks. Earlier in April, a 25-year-old Indian student missing since March was found dead in the US city of Cleveland. Mohammad Abdul Arfath, hailing from Nacharam, Hyderabad, arrived in the US last year in May to pursue a Masters in IT from Cleveland University.
In March, a 34-year-old trained classical dancer from India, Amarnath Ghosh, was shot dead in St Louis, Missouri. Sameer Kamath, a 23-year-old Indian-American student at Purdue University, was found dead in a nature preserve in Indiana on February 5. On February 2, Vivek Taneja, a 41-year-old Indian-origin IT executive, suffered life-threatening injuries during an assault outside a restaurant in Washington.
In January, 18-year-old Akul Dhawan, a University of Illinois student was found unresponsive outside a campus building. Investigations revealed that he died due to hypothermia, with authorities ruling that acute alcohol intoxication and prolonged exposure to extremely cold temperatures significantly contributed to his death.
(with inputs from PTI)
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