New Delhi: An Indian-origin student, Varun Manish Chheda from Indianapolis, was killed in his dormitory in the US on Wednesday and his Korean roommate was taken into custody by the local police, according to media reports. Chheda, who was pursuing a course in data science at Purdue University, was found dead in McCutcheon Hall on the western edge of campus, the police told.
Purdue University Police Chief Lesley Wiete told the media at a news conference on Wednesday morning that Ji Min “Jimmy” Sha, who is an international student from Korea and a junior cybersecurity major, called 911 at around 12:45 and informed the police of the death of his roommate Chheda.
The police said that the incident occurred on the dormitory’s first floor, while the details of Jimmy’s call to the police were not disclosed.
Chief Wiete further said that she believes the attack was “unprovoked” and “senseless”, Fox News reported.
The preliminary autopsy report shows that Chheda died of “multiple sharp force traumatic injuries,” and the manner of death was a homicide.
The police also told that another university student was arrested on the charge of murder the same day, NBC News reported.
Meanwhile, a childhood friend of Chheda, Arunabh Sinha told NBC News that the latter was engaged in talking and gaming with their group of friends on Tuesday night when they heard a scream on call all of a sudden.
NEW: I talked to a friend of Varun Chheda, the student killed at Purdue. Andrew Wu says Varun was kind, smart and passionate. As for Varun’s roommate, now arrested for his murder, Wu says Varun never said much about him. Live reports coming on @FOX59, @CBS4Indy and @NewsNation. pic.twitter.com/p1hwQYP6wp
— Eric Graves (@ReporterEric) October 5, 2022
Sinha told that he wasn’t a part of this call that night, but he was told about the incident by his friends, who learnt the news of Varun’s death on Wednesday morning.
