India has urged the US to look into bodycam evidence of a Seattle cop laughing at the murder of an Indian student who was struck by a speeding police car. The student was killed.
In January, Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, lost her life after being struck by a police car being operated by Officer Kevin Dave. According to the Seattle Times newspaper, he was traveling at around 120 kmph as he responded to a complaint of an overdose.
At the Seattle campus of Northeastern University, Kandula was a master’s student.
The Seattle Police Department revealed a video on Monday in which another officer can be heard making jokes and laughing about the incident.
In the video, the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild, Daniel Auderer, can be heard saying, “She is dead,” before laughing and referring to Ms. Kandula as “a regular person,” during a call with the guild’s president.
Through fits of laughter, he continued, “Yeah, just write a check. A million and one dollars
The Indian Consulate in San Francisco called the way Kandula’s death in a car accident was handled “deeply troubling” and demanded that those responsible be held accountable.
Recent reports including in media of the handling of Ms Jaahnavi Kandula’s death in a road accident in Seattle in January are deeply troubling. We have taken up the matter strongly with local authorities in Seattle & Washington State as well as senior officials in Washington DC
— India in SF (@CGISFO) September 13, 2023
The mission stated in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) that “we have taken up the matter strongly with local authorities in Seattle and Washington State as well as senior officials in Washington, DC, for a thorough investigation and action against those involved in this tragic case.”
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“The Consulate and Embassy will continue to closely follow up on this matter with all concerned authorities,” it added.
According to a GoFundMe page set up to help her family, Kandula was an Andhra Pradesh native who had been studying for her master’s degree at Northeastern University in Seattle.
