Unable to believe: Parents of dead Indian student want to visit US, follow probe

A 22-year-old Indian postgraduate student, Saketh Sreenivasaiah, who had been missing since February 9, was found dead on Sunday. Back home in Karnataka, his parents are still struggling to accept his death. They want to travel to California to personally collect his body and follow up on the investigation.

"They are unable to believe that he has really passed away. He had spoken to them a day before he went missing and everything seemed normal and routine. Saketh also never hinted at being under stress or facing any problems," Karnataka MLC Arathi Krishna told PTI after meeting his parents, Sreenivasaiah and Anupama, at their home on Sunday.

Krishna, who is also deputy chairman of the NRI Forum of Karnataka, said the family has no relatives in the US and fears that if the body is repatriated without their presence, the investigation may lose urgency.

PARENTS WANT TO VISIT US TO TRACK PROBE

"His parents still feel that they want to go there and ensure that a proper investigation is carried out. They somehow believe that everything seemed normal, and they are unable to understand how this could have happened. That is why they want to go in person. They have sought my assistance and I am helping them to secure an emergency visa as soon as possible so that they can travel immediately," she said.

Krishna added that the parents are in denial and want to personally verify the identity of the body recovered by authorities.

"They want to go personally to collect the body and also speak to the university and police authorities to understand the details of the investigation. They have requested that the probe be expedited and taken seriously," she added.

According to Krishna, the family believes that seeing the body themselves is the only way to come to terms with the tragedy. She said efforts are under way to secure urgent travel documents to enable them to visit Berkeley at the earliest.

BODY RECOVERED DAYS AFTER STUDENT WENT MISSING

The Indian Consulate in San Francisco confirmed in a social media statement on Sunday that the body of the missing Indian student had been located. Local police had earlier issued alerts seeking public help in tracing him after he was reported missing earlier this month.

Sreenivasaiah was last seen near Lake Anza in the Berkeley Hills shortly before he disappeared. His backpack — containing his passport and laptop — was later found outside a residence in the Park Hills neighbourhood, according to local media reports.

Investigators have not publicly disclosed the circumstances of his death or whether foul play is suspected. Authorities had appealed for information from anyone who may have seen him before he went missing.

Hailing from Karnataka, Sreenivasaiah had completed a BTech in chemical engineering from IIT Madras in 2025 and had recently begun his Master’s in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

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With inputs from PTI