Murder investigation into a Purdue University student’s death led to arrest

On Wednesday, a student at Purdue University was taken into custody and charged with murder in the death of his roommate.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Ji Min Sha, age 22, was accused of murdering Varun Manish Chheda, age 20. Sha reportedly called the police and gave himself in rather than running away.

At 12:45 in the morning, university police found Chheda, a student from Indianapolis who was majoring in data science, dead in the McCutcheon Residence Hall.

A preliminary murder accusation has been brought against Sha, who is from Seoul and majors in cybersecurity. The county coroner said that Chheda died from “several sharp-force traumatic injuries” before he died.

The police have not yet determined a plausible motive for the crime.

“I believe this was unprovoked and senseless,” Purdue Police Chief Lesley Wiete said.

Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue University, called it “the most horrible tragedy we can think of happening on our campus.”

He continued by saying, “Our hearts and sympathies go out to all of those who have been impacted by this horrible incident.”