Indian woman techie, 7-year-old son murdered in New Jersey

A 40-year-old Indian woman and her seven-year-old son were found dead in their home in New Jersey on Thursday, according to their family members who stay in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. The woman was a software professional.

According to her husband M Hanumantha Rao, N Sasikala and Aneesh Sai, the victims, mother and son were found strangled to death when he returned home from work on Thursday evening. Both Rao and Sasikala were software professionals. Sasikala used to work from home. The couple had been living in the US with their son since nine years.

Subba Rao, Hanumantha's father, told the Hindu that his son never complained of any problem in the US.

He used to be in touch with Hanumantha over phone on a daily basis.

Y Sambasiva Rao, member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Prakasam district, got in touch with the representatives of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) and told them about the incident and also sough their intervention. He has also asked



Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to help in bringing the bodies back to the native village.

Naidu expressed condolence to the family members through a tweet saying: "Pained to hear about the killing of Sasikala & son Sai in New Jersey, US. My condolences to the family members."

This is the latest in a series of recent violent incidents against Indian IT professionals living in the US. Two Indians were shot inside a bar in Olathe city in Kansas in the US last month, in what is said to be a racially-motivated crime. One of the victims, 32-year-old engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla, died in the incident, while the other, his colleague Alok Madasani, suffered injuries. Adam Purinton, the 51-year-old gunman, was taken into custody later.

Vamshi Reddy Mamidala, an engineer from Hyderabad working in the US, was shot dead in the garage of his apartment building in Milpitas, California, on February 10. A Sikh man was also shot in his arm while working in his driveway in Kent on March 3.