Hyderabad, Jan 20 (PTI): A 26-year-old student from Telangana was allegedly shot dead in the US by unidentified persons, his family members said here on Monday.

K Ravi Teja, who completed MS and was looking for a job, was living in Connecticut.

The family received information about his death from a relative staying in America.

However, the circumstances leading to his death were unclear, the family members said, adding the incident is said to have happened in Washington DC.

Teja, who went to the US in 2022 to pursue MS after completing engineering from a private college here, was doing part-time jobs, his cousin Santosh told PTI.

Teja's sister, who also lives in the US, has reached the hospital where the body was kept.

Teja's father Chandramouli was inconsolable as he spoke to reporters about the tragic death of his son.

He said his son was looking for a job after completing MS eight months ago and was hoping to secure a job in March this year, and would visit them after getting a job.

Chandramouli said he last spoke to Teja on January 18 night.

He also said his son had asked him to come down to the US.

"I got him educated by driving a taxi. We sent him to the US by selling off a small piece of land we had. He brought me to a level (in society) but left me now," Chandramouli said.

He urged the government to help in bringing back his mortal remains here as early as possible.

"I have come to know that my son was shot dead. I am told that it will take seven days. My appeal to the government is to send back the mortal remains as early as possible. I am not able to speak anything else... I sent him alive, but his body will come now," a grieving Chandramouli said.

Asked about the condition of Teja's mother, he said she is like the family's bedrock which has now shattered. "What can be said about her," he said.

The family belongs to Nalgonda district in Telangana and lived in Chaitanyapuri in Hyderabad.

In November 2024, a 22-year-old youth from Khammam district of Telangana was shot dead by miscreants at a gas station in the United States where he was working, family members had said.

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Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.

Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.

He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.

Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.

He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.

Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.

He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.