HYDERABAD: A 26-year-old MBA from Hyderabad working part-time in Washington DC after getting his degree from an American university was fatally shot late Sunday in a suspected carjacking attempt by the assailant near a gas station. He is the fourth person from Telangana to be killed in the US since June 2022.
Koyyada Raviteja, whose father Koyyada Chandramouli is a taxi driver from Telangana’s Nalgonda district, was in a car he had leased for food delivery when he was attacked on Washington Avenue, his family said.
New York-based North American Association of Indian Students said the “circumstances” of the shooting were still being investigated. “Authorities are exploring all angles, including a possible hate crime,” it said.
Raviteja’s sister and the family’s relatives spread across the US headed to Washington Monday after being informed of the crime. He reached the US in 2022 on an F1 visa and intended to live and work in that country.
Taxi driver received news of son being attacked as he was going out for walk
My son worked hard to pay his university fees. He would deliver food four days a week to get by and spend whatever time he had left looking for a secure job,” Chandramouli, who lives in Green Hills Colony near Chaitanyapuri, told the media in Hyderabad.
“He couldn’t immediately land a job he liked due to the presidential elections in the US, but was confident of getting one by March,” his father said.
Chandramouli recalled that his son recently asked him to get a passport so that he could visit the US. Father and son last spoke over the phone on Jan 18.
The taxi driver received news of his son being attacked just as he was stepping out of home for his morning walk. “A relative called to say my son suffered a hand injury but I instinctively knew I wasn’t being told the truth,” he said.
Raviteja’s mother, Suvarna, was too shocked to speak. The family has sought CM A Revanth Reddy’s help in bringing the young man’s body back to his native Telangana for the funeral.
