The Hindu : Front Page : Jharkhand student found shot dead in U.S.

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Jharkhand student found shot dead in U.S.

Gamariah (Jharkhand): In the second incident of campus gun violence in five weeks, an Indian student was found shot dead at an apartment complex in North Carolina on Friday.

Two Indian doctoral students from Andhra Pradesh were found shot dead on Louisiana State University campus on December 13.

Abhijeet Mahato, an engineering student from Jharkhand, who was doing his Ph.D. on computational mechanics at the Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering in Durham, was found shot dead at the apartment complex on Friday, his grandfather and former Jharkhand MLA, Dhananjoy Mahato, said on Sunday.

Durham police were quoted as having said they did not yet have a motive for the shooting.

Mr. Dhananjoy said he would ask the government to make arrangements for bringing the body here after the post-mortem examination was completed on Monday.

Abhijeet had told his parents Sitaram and Aarti Mahato last Wednesday that he had been very busy preparing for the coming examinations.

A pall of gloom descended on Abhijeet’s home at Gamariah and relatives and friends streamed in as soon as the news of the tragedy came in.

Abhijeet was a meritorious student who studied in Hindu School and did his Bachelor in Engineering from Kolkata’s Jadavpur University. An M.Tech. from IIT, Kanpur, he was in his second year of studies in the U.S.

Larry Moneta, Duke’s vice-president for student affairs, said the university had begun reaching out to Mahato’s friends and family in India, as well as to Indian and other international students on campus.

It is offering counseling services and has begun considering appropriate ways of commemorating Mahato’s life. — PTI

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