Reporting
How a ‘murder’ in Boston that didn’t happen made national news in India
The death of a young Indian student in Massachusetts has fueled a storm of online outrage and misinformation in his native country, where lurid headlines have baselessly suggested he was murdered in Boston as part of a rising tide of anti-Indian violence in the United States.
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth student Abhijeeth Paruchuru, 20, was found dead in a car in Freetown on March 8. Massachusetts authorities believe he died by suicide. “We found significant evidence indicating that he took his own life,” Dave Procopio, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts State Police, said in an email.
“We’re investigating it as an apparent suicide and waiting to hear from the medical examiner,” Gregg Miliote, a spokesperson for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, told the Globe.
But a far different story about Paruchuru’s death — with details that in some cases are obviously false or implausible — is being told by some of the largest news sources in India.
Numerous outlets there have run stories describing Paruchuru as a Boston University engineering student whose body was found in a forest on the campus and claimed that his family alleges he was murdered. The Times of India reported on X last week that he “was murdered.”
Several “assailants” were involved, one report said. The student might have been killed “for money and his laptop,” said another, or maybe in a personal dispute. “Brutally murdered in America,” said another.
Those news reports have heightened fears for the safety of Indian students in the United States, following other reports of violence against Indians — some of which genuinely occurred; others appear to have also been exaggerated or mischaracterized in the Indian press.
Earlier this month, Amarnath Ghosh, a 34-year old dancer and master’s student at Washington University was shot dead in St. Louis. Vivek Saini, a 25-year-old Indian who had recently completed a degree, was killed in Georgia.
But a student at Purdue University who was included in media lists of students “attacked” in the United States this year also died by suicide, according to the the coroner’s office in Warren County, Ind. Another listed as “attacked” died of asphyxia “with cold exposure and ethanol intoxication as other contributing factors.”
Safety concerns for Indian students are a significant issue in India, particularly given that the United States is the most preferred destination for higher education among Indians, with nearly 270,000 enrolled in the 2022-2023 academic year alone.
India’s media landscape is huge and freewheeling — with editorial standards that often vary dramatically. Violence in the United States is certainly a legitimate concern, but the hyperbolic coverage in India is creating an exaggerated impression of the dangers.
The accounts that circulated in Indian media about Paruchuru’s supposed killing in Boston were “fictitious,” though, according to Mariellen Burns, a spokesperson for the Boston Police Department. Colin Riley, a spokesperson for BU, said Paruchuru was not a student at the school. BU also does not have a forest on its campus.
The Indian consulate in New York — while still mistakenly describing Paruchuru as a student in Boston — did take a step to correct the record this week, posting on X that the “initial investigations rule out foul play.”
But accounts insinuating that Paruchuru was murdered continue to circulate in India — and continue to stir outrage.
“This is so depressing and scary,” commented a reader on Facebook.
“US is no longer safe for Indian students!!” commented another.
“Very tragic. No one seems to bother over these continuous attacks on Indian students,” another reacted.
Paruchuru lived in South Windsor, Conn., before attending UMass Dartmouth. An uncle who said he could speak to the Globe on behalf of the family, Tarani Paruchuri, who also lives in Connecticut, said the family is upset by media reports stating that Paruchuru was murdered.
Paruchuru’s family relocated to the United States when he was 10, according to Paruchuri. He was a “well-behaved child” who did not argue with his parents even as a teenager, said the uncle. “He was not very outgoing, did not have many friends. Online gaming was his main hobby.”
Paruchuru was studying Computer & Information Science at UMass Dartmouth, according to an email sent to the UMass Dartmouth community after his death. He was the only child of Chakradhar Paruchuri and Srilakshmi Boruna from the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Anjana Sankar is the Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow at the International Women’s Media Foundation and a research fellow at MIT’s Center for International Studies.
Alan Wirzbicki of the Globe staff contributed reporting.
Editor’s note: If you or someone you know is considering self-harm or suicide, please call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. You may also text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line.