Kamal Ghorui
VIJAYAWADA: A 26-year-old Indian youth living in the US shot himself with a hand gun in his apartment in Chicago on Thursday apparently over not being able to find a job there.Chandu Iraganaboyina, a native of Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh, had been jobless for some time. Local police officers and his friends said it was not clear how Chandu managed to get himself a gun as non-immigrants in the US are not allowed to keep firearms.Chandu’s friends launched a fundraising campaign and Telugu Association of North America (TANA) volunteers are coordinating with the police and funeral services to obtain clearances to help send his body back to India. Sai Bollineni from NRI TDP brought the issue to the notice of Union minister K Rammohan Naidu and state minister for IT and HRD Nara Lokesh so that the body can be repatriated.According to his friends, Chandu was under severe financial stress. He had completed had his master’s degree from DePaul University in March last year. He had initially got a job with a tech firm but his contract had ended recently. Sources added that his family too was finding it difficult to repay the loans they had taken to send him to the US.Before killing himself, Chandu had scheduled mails and messages to many of his friends, informing them of his decision to end his life due to financial troubles.“We are in shock and unable to understand what to do next,” said one of his friends.“Though we were sharing a room, none of us knew him well as he was extremely reserved. He never discussed his family issues, but what we understood was that he was dealing with financial problems, which may have contributed to his situation,” said one of his room mates.
