What happened weeks before Indian student Saketh's suicide in US
What's the story
Saketh Sreenivasaiah, a 22-year-old Indian student at the University of California, Berkeley, was found dead on February 14 after going missing for six days. His roommate Baneet Singh recalled that Sreenivasaiah had been showing signs of distress in the weeks leading up to his disappearance. "Life as an international student is tough, man...There were no signs of anything until the last two weeks," Singh wrote in a now-private LinkedIn post.
Last days
Signs of distress in weeks leading to disappearance
Singh observed that Sreenivasaiah had been eating less and only surviving on chips and cookies. He also recalled an incident when Sreenivasaiah returned from class in a red bathrobe, saying, "I've stopped caring, man. I'm cold and don't care what anyone thinks of me." He said he didn't take it seriously then, thinking, "Saketh was being funny as usual." "Now I know that he really meant it. The opposite of life was never death, it was indifference," he wrote.
Search operation
Body discovered 6 days later
The last sighting of Sreenivasaiah was about a kilometer away from campus. His backpack was found near a house close to Tilden Regional Park. The search for Sreenivasaiah was launched on February 9, covering Lake Anza and Berkeley Hills. His body was discovered six days later, around Lake Anza. The Karnataka government sought help from India's Ministry of External Affairs to coordinate with local authorities and support Sreenivasaiah's family during this tragic time.
Diplomatic assistance
Consulate offers assistance for repatriation of remains
The Indian Consulate in San Francisco confirmed the recovery of Sreenivasaiah's body and expressed condolences to his family. The consulate offered assistance for repatriating his remains back to India. Sreenivasaiah was an alumnus of IIT Madras and had studied at Bengaluru's Sri Vani Education Centre. He was one of six inventors on a patent for a "microchannel cooling system for hyperloop."