By IANS,
New York : A former doctoral student from India, who had become homeless and mentally unstable, committed suicide by jumping off a bridge near New York.
Ganesh Santhanakrishnan, 27, died April 3, soon after being released from the Westchester Medical Centre’s psychiatric unit and three years after moving to the US from Chennai.
Police held back his identity so far while making contact with his family in India. He had been living the life of a loner in Ossining in Westchester county after losing his computer-related job in New Jersey.
“He was alone in the country and apparently was experiencing some significant mental issues,” a police investigator told a local paper, The Journal News.
Santhanakrishnan’s mother told the paper from Chennai that he was an academically accomplished but fun-loving guy whose life went downhill after he lost student funding.
His neighbours in Ossining said that over the past year he exhibited increasingly erratic behaviour, like chasing cars, chanting in the middle of the night, and once even running after a mailman with a log of wood.
Santhanakrishnan, who had no criminal record, was arrested last month. After a week in jail, he was evaluated in the Westchester Medical Centre.
After losing his job in October last, he vacated his apartment, and started living in a concrete bunker storage space.
Back in India, Santhanakrishnan’s parents suspected he was going through a rough patch with the job search and urged him to return home. In November, his father asked his sister, who was visiting the US from India, to check up on him. That was when the family learned of his homeless living arrangements.