The Consulate General of India in San Francisco has confirmed that Saketh Sreenivasaiah's body has been found by the local law enforcement, even as the shocked family back home, in utter disbelief, is now seeking an emergency visa to the United States.
Sreenivasaiah was a 22-year-old Indian student from Karnataka. He, after completing his BTech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras, had relocated to the US only last year, where he was pursuing a postgraduate degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of California.
Back in Bengaluru, his parents are not ready to come to terms with the news of Sreenivasaiah's death, asserting they will only accept the news once they have seen the body with their own eyes.
"Till his mother has seen his body with her own eyes, we will keep believing he is alive," Sreenivasaiah's father, Sreenivasaiah Thammannagowda, said, during a visit from Karnataka MLC, Arathi Krishna, to his residence on Sunday, the Indian Express has reported.
The Indian consulate in San Francisco has assured to make arrangements and repatriate Sreenivasaiah's body to India. The family, who have refused to engage with the media, permitted only Arathi Krishna to meet them.
Krishna, who also serves as the deputy chairman of the NRI Forum of Karnataka, has said that the family was in disbelief. "They say their son was an extremely strong-willed person. They wish to visit the US themselves, and are not asking for his body to be brought back," he said.
Krishna told the Indian Express that Sreenivasaiah had last reached out to his family on February 8, a day before his disappearance. "He had called his mother, but she was unable to attend the call. His younger brother did speak to him after that, though," Krishna said.
Sreenivasaiah stopped returning calls after February 9, and the family presumed he was busy until on February 12, his housemate, Baneet Singh, notified the family about his disappearance, Krishna said. Sreenivasaiah is survived by his parents and a younger brother.
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