WEST LAFAYETTE (Indiana), Oct 8: Indian origin student, 20-year old Varun Manish
Chheda of Indianapolis was murdered in his dormitory in the McCutcheon Hall
at the Purdue University on Wednesday by his South Korean roommate Ji Min Sha
who has been taken into custody. Varun was a student of data science.
Ji Min Sha himself had called the police and alerted them about the death.
Sha was taken into custody minutes after the 911 call. The call came into the
Purdue University Police Department at 12:44 am Wednesday morning from McCutcheon
Hall.
Officers found Chheda dead in a chair. A folding knife was found on the floor.
A preliminary autopsy found multiple sharp force traumatic injuries to Chheda's
head and neck. Sha had blood on his clothes and body. He admitted the knife
on the floor was his and that he had used it to kill Chheda.
He was a National Merit Scholarship Award Winner and a national runner up in
the Science Bowl Competition in 2016.
A visitation for Chheda will be held Sunday, Oct. 9 from 2 to 5 pm.
Ji Min Sha, 22, is a junior studying cybersecurity at Purdue.
Police are still trying to work out a possible motive. When court hearing began
on October 7, he was asked by reporters in the premises "why did you do it?"
Sha responded, "I was blackmailed." It ends there and not taken forward by the
cops for a clarification for what it meant. Court documents provide no hint
to a motive either!
Sha also told reporters he was "very sorry" when asked if he had a message
for the family of the victim. He said that after he killed Chheda he called
911 and stayed in the room until officers came and arrested him.
Varun was a brilliant student, funny, and well liked by his classmates. He
possessed admirable character traits that stemmed from a strong family, his
old school classmates said.
