Washington– A suspect who has been arrested over the murder of Indian psychiatrist Achutha Reddy in the US state of Kansas, was once sent to India to “straighten out”, informed sources told the media.
The 21-year-old suspect identified as Umar Rashid Dutt, is being held in prison on a $1 million bond after his arrest on Wednesday night shortly Reddy, 57, was murdered in his clinic in East Wichita.
Dutt was a patient of Reddy’s.
Dutt’s neighbours and a former teacher on Thursday told local TV station KWCH that although he was “kind and very quiet”, he was also “rebellious and involved with wrong company”.
Ryan Schrader, who taught Dutt for three years in high school told the station that he remembered discussions on him being sent to India as one of several ideas to “get him on a better path”.
The station did not say where in India he was sent to or when.
Schrader said that Dutt had differences with parents over his future and he was not sure of going to college.
Dutt, who grew up in Wichita with his parents and sister, completed high school in 2014 and did a few semesters at Wichita State University but did not graduate.
“Sometimes he would be talking about smoking, partying and a lot or drinking with his friends.
“There were often a lot of arguments between him and his parents like his mom would walk by and see that maybe he wasn’t paying attention so she would be like ‘Omar you need to focus, you need to really care about your education’,” Schrader told KWCH.
The neighbors described Dutt as “kind and very quiet”, and those who knew him said he was not violent.
Reddy is the second Indian killed this year in Kansas. Telangana resident Srinivas Kuchibhotla was shot dead in Olathe in February.
Kuchibotla’s murder has been denounced as a white racist hate crime.
