‘Hate crime’: Indian mother, son found dead at New Jersey home

NEW JERSEY: A woman from India and her 7-year-old son were found dead in their home, Indian media reported on Friday, citing the deceased’s family. The woman has been identified as N Sasikala and her son as Anish Sai, reports said.

Sasikala’s husband N Hanumantha Rao found their bodies on Thursday evening after he returned home from work, according to a foreign news agency. The family hailed from the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and had reportedly been living in the US for nine years.

According to politician Y Sambasiva Rao from Andhra Pradesh, the mother-son duo was strangulated to death. Sasikala, 40, was software professional and worked from home, Indian media reported.

No other details surrounding the deaths were immediately available.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu tweeted condolences.

This follows the killing of Indian software engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla in Kansas last month. Adam Purinton, a 52-year-old Navy veteran, shot dead Kuchibhotla at the Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe after shouting “get out of my country.”

Kuchibhotla’s killing triggered uproar in the US with several blaming President Donald Trump for triggering racist attacks.

“Anti-Muslim hate has been expanding rapidly for more than two years now, driven by radical Islamist attacks including the June mass murder of 49 people at an Orlando, Florida, gay nightclub, the unrelenting propaganda of a growing circle of well-paid ideologues, and the incendiary rhetoric of Trump — his threats to ban Muslim immigration, mandate a registry of Muslims in America, and more,” the Southern Poverty Law Center said last month.

On March 2, a store owner from India was found dead outside his home in South California. The following day, a gunman shot a Sikh American in Washington after shouting “go back to your country.” The man sustained injuries and local police are looking into the incident as a hate crime. On March 12, a Florida man reportedly set a shop owned by a person of Indian origin on fire.