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What Indian student found dead in US told roommate days before disappearance: ‘I don’t care about anything’
The body of Indian student Saketh Sreenivasaiah was recovered from Lake Anza in California. His roommate reported he had been acting withdrawn and eating less
Saketh Sreenivasaiah, the 22-year-old Indian student who went missing in the United States on February 9, has been found dead by the local police. Sreenivasaiah’s body was pulled from Lake Anza in California on Saturday afternoon (local time).
Sreenivasaiah was a post-graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. His roommate Baneet Singh said in a LinkedIn post that Sreenivasaiah died by suicide. (Also read: Indian student Saketh Sreenivasaiah, missing since February 9, found dead in US)
Singh said that in the weeks leading up to his disappearance, Sreenivasaiah had been eating less and acting more and more indifferent.
Singh has since made his profile private amid growing buzz over the Indian student's death.
“Shocked to the core,” says roommate
“My Berkeley roommate, Saketh Sreenivasaiah, has been found dead by suicide in lake Anza near the Berkeley hills, according to police… the entire community has been shocked to the core,” Baneet Singh said in a LinkedIn post.
Singh said he is working with authorities to fly Sreenivasaiah’s family from India to the US on an emergency visa.
“Surviving on chips, cookies”
The University of California, Berkeley student went on to ruminate on life as an international student, saying that it can be tough.
He claimed that in the two weeks before he disappeared on February 9, Saketh Sreenivasaiah had been eating less and becoming more withdrawn.
“There were no signs of anything until the last 2 weeks, when he started eating less and engaging less, only surviving on chips and cookies,” Singh said in his LinkedIn post.
He added that on January 21, Sreenivasaiah invited him to Lake Anza. Singh declined, feeling too lazy. “Little did I know that would be the same place he’d take his life,” he wrote.
Went to class in red bathrobe
Baneet Singh also said that his last conversation with Sreenivasaiah occurred after the Indian student returned from class wearing a red bathrobe.
“I asked him ‘why are you wearing a robe to class’, with a smirk on my face,” wrote Singh.
“He said, ‘I've stopped caring man. I'm cold and don’t care what anyone thinks of me. I don’t care about anything.’”
Singh laughed off the comment at that time. However, he now says it was indicative of Sreenivasaiah’s mental health.
“Now I know that he really meant it. The opposite of life was never death, it was indifference. To stop caring. Which led to him not caring for his own life, either,” he concluded.
