India, Feb. 15 -- Saketh Sreenivasaiah, 22, the Indian student whose body was found in a lake in California after six days of search on Saturday, had graduated barely six months ago from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras; and a celebratory announcement was the last post he made on social network LinkedIn. In it, he poignantly remembered a batchmate, Kedar.

"This milestone would've been much better alongside my dearest friend and batchmate Kedar. The warm moments & memories we shared continue to inspire," Sreenivasaiah wrote.

Though he was not more specific, the mention of the name Kedar points to a tragic death on the IIT-M campus in the same batch, 2021-25. In April 2023, a second-year undergraduate student a...