Telugu Woman Engineer, Son, From AP, Murdered in US

A 40-year-old woman and her 7-year-old son, belonging to Prakasam district in Andhra Pradesh, were found murdered at their home in New Jersey, USA, on March 23.

Narra Hanumantha Rao and his wife Sasikala, both software engineers, hailing from Thimmarajupalem of Parchur in Prakasam district, had moved to the US nine years back. While Rao was employed in a software firm, his wife used to work from home. The son, 7, was named Anish Sai.

Rao was stated to have returned in the evening from office and found both his wife and son lying in a pool of blood with their throats slit. He immediately alerted the police, who began investigations into the gruesome double murder.

On receipt of the information, TDP legislator from Prakasam district V Sambasiva Rao immediately contacted Telangana Association of North America (TANA) representatives and requested them to find out more details about the incident and also to provide all the required assistance to Hanumantha Rao. The MLA also brought the incident to the notice of AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who expressed his shock over the incident.

Though the motive behind the double murder is yet to be ascertained, this has been the third incident involving IT professionals belonging to the two Telugu states. Earlier, another young software engineer from Hanumakonda, Vamsi Reddy, had been shot dead near his apartment in California. And on February 22, an aeronautical engineer Srinivas Kuchibotla was shot and killed while his colleague Alok Madasani was injured in an incident at Austin Bar And Grill in Olathe, Kansas.

This incident was the fifth in a series of attacks on Indians residing in the US. On March 2, a Gujarati store owner Harnish Patel was gunned down near his house in South Carolina, and on March 3, a 39-year-old Sikh, Deep Rai, was critically wounded in a shooting incident at Kent in Seattle, Washington.

Telugus in both AP and Telangana are now worried due to this series of incidents following Donald Trump being elected President of the United States. Many families have been pressurizing children working or studying in different parts of US, to return at the earliest. Chief Ministers N Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrashekar Rao have also been impressing upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to look into the issue of the safety and protection of Telugus in the US.