Indian UC Berkeley Student Saketh Sreenivasaiah Found Dead in Lake Anza
The death of Saketh Sreenivasaiah, a 22-year-old Indian graduate student at the University of California Berkeley, has shaken the South Asian diaspora community in the Bay Area and drawn concern from India, from the Indian Consulate General in San Francisco, and from advocates working on mental health in Asian-American communities. Sreenivasaiah, a native of Karnataka who had graduated from IIT Madras before enrolling at UC Berkeley, was reported missing on February 12, 2026, and his body was recovered from Lake Anza at Tilden Regional Park two days later. His death has prompted grief, reflection, and urgent calls for better mental health support for Indian international students navigating life far from their families.
UC Berkeley Graduate Student Found Dead; Roommate Recalls Missed Warning Signs
Saketh Sreenivasaiah, 22, a graduate student in UC Berkeley's chemical and biomolecular engineering program, was found dead in Lake Anza at Tilden Regional Park on February 14, 2026, after being reported missing two days earlier. NextShark reported that Alameda County Sheriff's dive teams recovered his body, and the Contra Costa County Coroner's Office confirmed his identity on February 16. Authorities said Sreenivasaiah had been distressed over a personal relationship. A native of Karnataka, he had completed his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras — one of India's most competitive engineering institutions — before enrolling at UC Berkeley. His roommate, Baneet Singh, wrote publicly on LinkedIn about missed warning signs: in the two weeks before the disappearance, Sreenivasaiah had been eating less, withdrawing from social interaction, surviving mainly on chips and cookies. In their final exchange, Sreenivasaiah returned from class in a red bathrobe and said: 'I've stopped caring, man. I'm cold and don't care what anyone thinks of me. I don't care about anything.' Singh, who took the remark as silliness at the time, later reflected: 'The opposite of life was never death. It was indifference.' Singh is working with authorities to bring Sreenivasaiah's family from India to the United States on an emergency visa. NextShark noted that suicide is now the leading cause of death among AAPI youth according to a 2024 study, with rates doubling between 1999 and 2021, and that AAPI individuals remain among the least likely to seek mental health support. [5]
🗳️ Indian Consulate General in San Francisco Steps In During Student's Disappearance
The Consulate General of India in San Francisco intervened publicly in the search for Saketh Sreenivasaiah, posting a statement on X expressing 'deep concern' over the UC Berkeley student's disappearance. 'The Consulate is in touch with the family and also is in contact with the concerned local authorities to locate the student,' the statement read. The Consulate's rapid response — reported by Gulf News — highlighted the diplomatic mechanisms India has in place to monitor the welfare of its nationals studying abroad. As search operations were coordinated between the Berkeley Police Department and the East Bay Regional Park District, investigators found Sreenivasaiah's backpack — containing his passport and laptop — on a doorstep in the Park Hills neighbourhood adjacent to Tilden Regional Park. Police described Sreenivasaiah as six feet one inch tall, 160 pounds, with short black hair and brown eyes, last seen on the 1700 block of Dwight Way. The Consulate's involvement reflects a pattern seen in other high-profile cases involving Indian students in the United States, where the Indian government has adopted an increasingly visible, active role in advocating for its citizens abroad. Gulf News reported that Sreenivasaiah had enrolled in UC Berkeley's Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering master's program after completing his undergraduate degree at IIT Madras and was pursuing further research in chemical engineering at one of the world's leading public research universities. [3]
Student's Academic Promise Remembered as Indian Community Mourns
The New Indian Express highlighted the academic achievements of Saketh Sreenivasaiah in its coverage of his death, drawing on details from his LinkedIn profile to provide a fuller picture of the student whose life ended in Lake Anza in February 2026. Beyond his enrolment in UC Berkeley's prestigious chemical and biomolecular engineering graduate program, Sreenivasaiah had reportedly been associated with a group of students connected to a patented technological invention in the field of cooling systems — a detail that underscored the depth of intellectual talent cut short by his death at 22. He had graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras before earning a place at one of the world's leading research universities, a trajectory reflecting exceptional ability and the high expectations placed on young Indians who achieve admission to IIT and then secure graduate placements in the United States. The New Indian Express published its report on February 15, 2026, six days after Sreenivasaiah had last been seen, as extensive media coverage of the case continued across Indian outlets. His death prompted an outpouring of grief among fellow students and the broader Indian diaspora community, both in the Bay Area and in Karnataka. For many observers, the case became a prompt to revisit the pressures placed on high-achieving Indian international students navigating academic, social, and personal challenges thousands of miles from their families and support networks. [6]
Sources: [5] nextshark.com · [3] Gulf News · [6] The New Indian Express