Washington, Sep 15 (IANS) A renowned Indian doctor who expounded a system called “Absolute Yoga” has been stabbed to death in Kansas state in the US. One of his patients was arrested for the killing, police said.
Achutha Reddy, a psychiatrist who hailed from Telangana, was murdered at his clinic in East Wichita on Wednesday night. An Indian American man, Umar Rashid Dutt, was arrested and charged with first degree murder, according to TV station KAKE.
Reddy, 57, is the second Indian killed this year in Kansas. Another Telangana resident, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, was shot dead in Olathe in February.
Media reports quoted the police as saying that the assailant repeatedly stabbed the doctor after a conversation. The attack on Reddy began in his clinic and ended in a nearby lane as the fleeing doctor was chased down by the assailant.
Police Lieutenant Todd Ojile said on Thursday that the office manager of Reddy’s Holistic Psychiatric Services heard a disturbance in the doctor’s office on Wednesday evening around 7 p.m. and saw the assault taking place.
The manager tried to stop the attack, allowing Reddy to flee. But Reddy was chased by the assailant and killed in a second assault in an alley behind the clinic, Ojile said.
He said Reddy had several stab wounds and was pronounced dead by the emergency medical team that responded. Dutt was arrested near a country club a short time later when a security guard alerted police to a man covered with blood in a car, Ojile said.
Reddy’s wife Beena is also a doctor. Fellow doctors and members of the community described his death as a tragic loss to society.
Hailing from Nalgonda in Telangana, Reddy graduated from Osmania Medical College in 1986. He moved to the US where he completed his residency in psychiatry from the University of Kansas Medical School in Wichita.
Reddy was affiliated to various hospitals in the region and was known to be a yoga and fitness expert. He expounded a system he called “Absolute Yoga”.
According to TV station KAKE, a Wichita State University spokesman said Dutt, arrested for Reddy’s murder, was a former student and was last enrolled in the spring of 2015.
He is being held in prison on a $1 million bond. Dutt’s neighbours and a former teacher said 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 a US TV station that he remembered discussions on him being sent to India as one of several ideas to “get him on a better path”.
The Wichita Eagle newspaper quoted Denis Knight, president of the Medical Society of Sedgwick County, as saying: “The Medical Society is heartbroken over the loss of Reddy.”
April Marie Schlenker from Kansas State University said: “Reddy was so unique to anyone else I have ever met in the therapy/psychiatric world. He connected almost instantly with people. His eyes held wisdom and secrets and joy.”
A patient, Cecilia Smith, credited him with saving her life. She told KWCH TV. “I tried killing myself, and if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have been here today.”
In a statement, Reddy’s family said it “wants to thank each and every one that made his life a joy every day”.