Saketh Sreenivasaiah, the 22-year-old UC Berkeley student from Karnataka, was found dead in the US six days after he went missing. His roommate, Baneet Singh, said there were no signs of anything until the last two weeks.
Sreenivasaiah, who was pursuing his Master of Science in the Product Development Programme at the University of California, Berkeley, was last seen near Lake Anza in the Tilden Regional Park.
In a post on LinkedIn, Sreenivasaiah’s roommate, Baneet Singh, shared the update on the missing student and said, “Hey all, my Berkeley roommate, Saketh Sreenivasaiah, has been found dead in Lake Anza near the Berkeley hills.”
Singh wrote that he was working with authorities to fly Sreenivasaiah’s family to America from India on an emergency visa.
Noting that life as an international student is tough, Singh wrote that there were no signs of distress or anything in Sreenivasaiah until the last two weeks. He said that the 22-year-old had “started eating less and engaging less, only surviving on chips and cookies”.
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Singh further stated that Saketh Sreenivasaiah had invited him to Lake Anza on January 21. However, Singh said he did not accompany him as he was “too lazy” to go.
Last conversation with Saketh
Baneet Singh also recalled the last conversation he had with Saketh Sreenivasaiah. He said he saw the 22-year-old returning from class wearing a red bathrobe.
Singh asked him, “Why are you wearing a robe to class?” Sreenivasaiah responded, “I’ve stopped caring, man. I’m cold and don’t care what anyone thinks of me. I don’t care about anything.”
Singh regretted laughing at his roommate’s remarks at the time, saying he thought “Saketh was just being silly as usual”.
“He was always up to something silly. 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,” Singh wrote in his public post on LinkedIn.
Baneet Singh called on people to take Sreenivasaiah’s death as a reminder to reach out to loved ones and check on them. “I didn’t expect this from a friend who lived, ate, travelled, laughed and joked with me. It hurts,” he added.
He stated that he would be taking time off from social media to mourn and spend time with his friends, urging others to do the same.
“Take this news as a way to bring together love with friends, instead of sitting in sorrow. Saketh would have wanted that for you all, too,” Singh wrote.
The Indian Consulate in San Francisco also shared the news in a post on X and said that local police have confirmed the recovery of Saketh Sreenivasaiah’s body.
The Consulate said that it is ready to provide all necessary assistance to Sreenivasaiah’s family, including “coordination with local authorities and arrangements for the repatriation of mortal remains to India at the earliest”.
“Our consular officers are in direct contact with the family and will support them with all required formalities and services,” it added.