Indian-Origin Student Found Murdered in US Dormitory

A 20-year-old Indian-origin student was murdered on Wednesday in his dormitory in the US state of Indiana. His Korean roommate was arrested, according to media reports.

The deceased has been identified as Varun Manish Chheda from Indianapolis, a student of Purdue University. He was found dead in a room on the first floor of McCutcheon Hall on the western edge of campus. He died of “multiple sharp force traumatic injuries,” and the manner of death was homicide, according to preliminary autopsy results.

The police have arrested a university student on a murder charge. Ji Min “Jimmy” Sha, a junior cybersecurity major and international student from Korea, called 911 around 12:45 am on Wednesday to alert police about the death, Purdue University Police Chief Lesley Wiete said at a news conference Wednesday morning. The call’s details remain undisclosed. Sha, 22, was taken into custody minutes after the 911 call and taken to the police station for further investigation. 

Chheda's death is Purdue’s on-campus homicide in more than eight years, police said. University President Mitch Daniels said Chheda's death was “as tragic an event as we can imagine happening on our campus, adding that “our hearts and thoughts go out to all of those affected by this terrible event”. 

Chheda was studying data science at the university. He was a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program and a candidate for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program in 2020, according to a Facebook post from the school. "He was unbelievably good at everything he did," the staff member said. "I didn't even process it when I saw his name until I said it out loud. I just had a flashback to science bowl in middle school."

Arunabh Sinha, a childhood friend of Chheda’s, said that Chheda had been gaming and talking with friends online on Tuesday night when they suddenly heard screaming on the call. Sinha was not playing with his friends that night, but they said they heard the attack and didn’t know what happened. They woke up Wednesday morning to news of his death.

Chief Wiete believes the attack was “unprovoked” and “senseless", Fox News reported.