December 15,2007

by Kamlesh Tripathi

Indian Government has sent KB Pillai from the Indian Consulate-General in Houston and Alok Pandey from the Indian Embassy in Washington to Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, to assist the local authorities in regards to murder of two Indian students.

The victims, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both doctoral students from Andhra Pradesh, were found inside Allam’s apartment in the university campus late Thursday night. The authorities found them when Allam's wife made a 911 call for medical attention. Initial reports say that both the men were shot once in the head in execution style killing. The area is where the incident took place is described as one with highest crime rate in the the city.

Komma was bound with computer cable where as Allam was found near the front door. Initial report says there was nothing missing from the apartment. Which raises the question about motive behind this execution style murder of two students within campus.

The execution style killing has been largely played down by US authorities as a simple house break case. Authorities determined that this was an isolated incident that posed no larger danger although the killers are still on the loose.  Kristine Calongne, a university spokeswoman, said ''Police actually thinks it was a straight home invasion and not a concern to the rest of the campus,''

oth the students were doing their doctorate at LSU. Komma was studying biochemistry while Allam was doing his chemistry. LSU has a very large contingent of Indian students. Louisiana is the home state of Bobby Jindal, the recently elected Governor who is of Indian origin. LSU’s law school dean for many years was Bhisham Agnihotri, who was a special envoy for overseas Indians under the NDA government.

''This was a tragic loss for the LSU community, the LSU family,'' the university Chancellor Sean O'Keefe, former NASA chief, told reporters. ''Our deepest condolences go out to the families.''  He further added that "This does not appear to be a random event. He also mentioned “that an autopsy that is underway could probably throw more light on the incident.

Phani Mylavarpu, a 26-year-old Indian student pursuing a mechanical engineering Ph.D., told the local Times-Picayune, the homicides appear to be ''a random, unfortunate act'' not targeting the victims because of their nationality. Mylavarpu is former president of Indian students association at LSU.   

But he said international students, who often congregate together and comprise a considerable portion of the residences in select housing units, want to be assured that their safety is a priority for campus police.

''I'm not blaming the safety system,'' he said, ''but things like this are still happening, and it leaves us concerned on behalf of the international student community.''

The concerns shown by Mylavarpu are genuine as this is not the first incidence of this nature at the same Campus. Earlier last year in June, another Indian 23 year old student,  Ajmaluddin Mohammed, doing is MS from LSU was found drowned in swimming pool on campus minutes after he spoke with his mother in India. His parents say that he has no reason to be in pool since he did not know swimming and claim his death was unnatural and should be considered as possible murder.

Next: Air India to join Star Alliance.