Berkeley: Karnataka master's student Saketh Sreenivasaiah found dead in Lake Anza as India consulate steps in
Berkeley's Indian student community is grieving Saketh Sreenivasaiah, a 22-year-old master's student from Karnataka whose body was recovered from Lake Anza at Tilden Regional Park on February 14. The IIT Madras alumnus had been enrolled in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UC Berkeley when he was last seen near campus on February 10. The Consulate General of India in San Francisco intervened publicly, coordinating with Berkeley Police and East Bay Regional Park District through a search that stretched into a fifth day before ending in tragedy.
Dive teams recover UC Berkeley engineering student six days after disappearance
Saketh Sreenivasaiah, a 22-year-old Indian international student pursuing a master's degree at the University of California, Berkeley, was found dead in Lake Anza at Tilden Regional Park on February 14. A native of Karnataka, he had completed his undergraduate degree at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras before enrolling in the chemical and biomolecular engineering master's program at UC Berkeley, and had been reported missing on February 12. The Berkeley Police Department said he was last seen two days earlier on the 1700 block of Dwight Way. Alameda County Sheriff's Office dive teams recovered his body from Lake Anza, roughly a 12-minute drive from campus, and the Contra Costa County Coroner's Office confirmed his identity on February 16. Authorities reported that Sreenivasaiah had been distressed over a relationship at the time of his disappearance. His roommate, Baneet Singh, wrote on LinkedIn that in the two weeks before he went missing Sreenivasaiah had started eating less and engaging less, surviving on chips and cookies — signs Singh said he only recognised in retrospect. Singh recalled a last exchange in which Sreenivasaiah returned from class in a red bathrobe and told him he had stopped caring, and said he is now working with authorities to bring Sreenivasaiah's family to the United States on an emergency visa. [2]
Indian consulate coordinates with Berkeley police as search expands around Tilden
The Consulate General of India in San Francisco expressed deep concern about the disappearance of Saketh Sreenivasaiah, a 22-year-old postgraduate student at UC Berkeley from Karnataka, and said in a post on X that it was in touch with his family and with concerned local authorities to help locate him. Berkeley Police said a search was underway near Lake Anza for the missing student, who was last seen on Tuesday, and reported that he had been upset about a relationship at the time. His backpack, containing his passport and laptop, was found on a doorstep in the Park Hills neighbourhood next to Tilden Regional Park. Officers said they were coordinating with the East Bay Regional Park District on the search and continued to ask the community for help in locating him, noting he was last seen in the 1700 block of Dwight Way, near McGee Avenue. Berkeley Police described him as six feet one inch tall, weighing about 160 pounds, with short black hair and brown eyes, and identified him as Indian. Sreenivasaiah had been pursuing his master's degree in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department at UC Berkeley, according to his LinkedIn profile, after earlier undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology. [4]
Karnataka native's disappearance draws attention across Indian media
The disappearance of Saketh Sreenivasaiah, a 22-year-old Karnataka native studying at UC Berkeley, drew nationwide coverage in India as the search for him entered its fifth day. According to the report, Sreenivasaiah was a student of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and was last seen roughly a kilometre from campus on February 10. The Consulate General of India in San Francisco publicly expressed concern and said it was in touch with his family and with concerned authorities in the United States to help locate him. The consulate's statement on X emphasised that officials were monitoring the case closely, and Indian outlets carried the Berkeley Police Department's missing-persons appeal, including his last known location and physical description. Coverage from India traced the arc of Sreenivasaiah's academic career — an undergraduate placement at an Indian Institute of Technology followed by a highly competitive move to Berkeley for graduate study — and framed the story as part of a wider pattern of anxious weeks for Indian families whose children are studying at Bay Area universities. Family, friends and consular officials publicly urged anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact Berkeley Police immediately. [7]
Sources: [2] nextshark.com · [4] Gulf News · [7] WION