Indian-American Doctor Stabbed To Death By Patient In US

A 57-year-old Indian-American doctor has been stabbed to death allegedly by an Indian-origin patient near his clinic in the Wichita city of Kansas.

Psychiatrist Achutha Reddy, who hailed from Telangana, was found dead with multiple knife wounds in an alley behind his clinic in East Wichita on Wednesday (13 September), police said.

One of his patients, 21-year-old Umar Rashid Dutt, also an Indian-American, has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Reddy was pronounced dead on the scene by the police, Lieutenant Todd Ojile, section commander of the homicide division at the Wichita Police Department, told reporters at a news conference yesterday (14 September).

The incident happened on the evening of 13 September. The police received the call around 7.20pm.

The accused was found at a country club after a security guard reported a suspicious person sitting in a car in the parking lot with blood on his clothes. “During the investigation, we learned that the 21-year-old suspect was a client of Dr Reddy and had been at the office. The suspect was in the business for a short time. He left and then later came back with Dr Reddy and they went into an office there,” Ojile said.

“After going to an office, a disturbance was heard. An office manager entered into the office and observed the suspect assaulting Dr Reddy. She attempted to stop the assault which allowed the doctor to flee the office,” he said.

Umar chased the doctor out of his office and stabbed him multiple times, Ojile said, adding that the reason for the murder was not ascertained yet.

Umar has been held on a $1 million bond. According to Wichita State University, he was a former student, last enrolled in the spring of 2015.

Reddy graduated from a medical school at Osmania University in India in 1986 and did his residency at the University of Kansas Medical Center in 1998. He specialised in psychiatry.

The Indian-American community in Wichita has expressed shock over the incident. (PTI)