This year’s eleventh Indian student discovered deceased in the US
An Indian student studying in the United States met an untimely end after being missing for more than a month. “I was devastated to hear that Mohammed Abdul Arfath, for whom a search was conducted, had been discovered deceased in Cleveland, Ohio.” The Indian embassy in New York expressed their sincere sympathies to his family on X, failing to provide details on the circumstances surrounding the discovery of his death.
His father Mohammed Saleem, who had requested help from External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, claims that he last talked with Arfath on March 7 and then turned off his cell phone. A few days later, he got a call from someone claiming that a drug-selling group had abducted Arfath and was demanding $1,200 in ransom to free him.
The Indian embassy in New York said on March 21 that it was working with the local law enforcement agencies to find Arfath.
Arfath’s death marks the 11th killing of an Indian or student of Indian descent in the US this year. Campus violence is rampant in the country. According to the Indian embassy, Uma Satya Sai Gadde, a Cleveland student, passed away last week, and an inquiry is being conducted to determine the cause of death. Three months after Taranjit Singh Sandhu’s retirement, the Indian mission in Washington remains without a permanent ambassador.
