Saiesh Veera, the 24-year-old Telugu student from Eluru in Andhra Pradesh, was shot dead by a group of thieves on Thursday at a fuel station in Ohio, in the United States.
The incident took place after midnight at a fuel station in the Columbus division of the state, where Veera was working.
"On April 20, 2023, at 12:50 AM, Columbus Police officers were dispatched to the 1000 block of W. Broad St. on a reported shooting. Upon arrival, the officers located an adult male victim, identified as SAIESH VEERA, M/O/24, suffering from a gunshot wound," the police said in a notification.
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The officials took him to a local hospital but despite life-saving measures, Saiesh succumbed to the gunshot wounds. However, they have shared a photo of the suspect as seen on CCTV cameras.
According to people close to him, Veera moved to the US, the first in his family, with many aspirations and wanted to uplift his family as his father – an economics teacher at Eluru’s C R Reddy College – had died four years ago. He was one of the breadwinners of his family after the death of his father, who used to teach, four years ago.
He wanted to settle down there and give his family a good life. Now, the death of the Master's student leaves behind his homemaker mother and an older brother, Venkatesh.
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Veera’s uncle Narasimha Rao told the media, “My brother always had the ambition of sending both the sons or at least one of them to the US for higher studies." Rao is the younger brother of Veera's father and lives in Palakollu.
He said the family took a bank loan to send their son to a foreign university after he completed an electrical engineering course at the same college where his father had worked. Rao said Veera had completed his course in the US and in another 20 days he would have got a placement.
According to his uncle, Veera applied for an H-1B visa and exuded confidence that he would bag it. Anticipating these changes, he had also tendered his resignation at the fuel station where he was doing part-time work.
Veera was planning to visit India at the end of May for a month and then return to the US, his uncle said. The last call from Veera had come during the past weekend, and as further telephonic conversations did not happen, the family members did not know where Veera had bagged a job and other details.
Eluru district collector V Prasanna Venkatesh called up Veera’s family members and spoke to them, assuring help from the government to bring back his body.
The local sub-divisional police officer, municipal commissioner and deputy collector too visited the victim’s home while Eluru MLA Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas (Nani) also visited them and assured that they would extend all the help needed from the government to bring the body back as early as possible.
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(With PTI inputs)
