AP techie found dead in US, 8th case of Indians from the state

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jan 22 (PTI) An Indian software engineer from southern state of Andhra Pradesh was found dead in his apartment in Indianapolis in the US under mysterious circumstances in the eighth case of young students and professionals from the state meeting a violent end in the last 14 months.

Preliminary investigations in the death of Muthyala
Purushottam(27) pointed to a case of suicide. The lives of the
previous seven victims from the state were snuffed out in the
US after they were found murdered in separate incidents.

Purushottam was found dead in his apartment in a south
eastern neighborhood of Indianapolis City Tuesday evening,
police said.

A resident of Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, Purushottam
worked with Triton Infotech in Indianapolis.

Purushottam, son of police Sub-Inspector M Nagalingam,
went to the US two years ago and was living with his wife
Praveena, who also hails from Anantapur.

An Indianapolis Police official, requesting anonymity
as she is not authorised to speak to the media, told PTI that
the police received an emergency call at about 6.15 PM on
Tuesday that Purushottam was found dead on the floor.

The body was first found by his wife, also a software
techie, who then alerted the neighbours, who in turn called
the police, the official said.

Upon reaching the apartment, the police found the
victim lying on the floor and there appeared to be marks of
something around his neck. He was immediately taken to the
hospital. The autopsy report is yet to come, she said.

The official said initial investigation has indicated
it is a case of suicide but the police was continuing with its
probe to confirm the reasons and cause of his death and also
the circumstances.

N Akshay Vishal, working with fraud-hit Satyam
Computers, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in
Arkansas on January 13 this year.

In a string of tragedies where those hailing from
AP were victims, Arpana B Jinaga, an IT engineer in Seattle
was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her apartment
on November 3. An engineering student in Southern Illinois
University T Soumya Reddy was found murdered in September
last. Her cousin Vikram Reddy, also a software engineer in
Chicago, was also found dead nearby.

A Srinivas, a post-graduate medical student was found
murdered in Pennsylvania in March while A Kirankumar and
K Chandrasekhar Reddy, both PhD students, were shot dead at
Louisiana University in December 2007.

On November 16 last, Pulluri Shashank, a native of
Warangal in AP, survived a violent attack by unidentified
miscreants in Tennesse. PTI LKJ