US man gets 60 years in jail for Telangana student’s murder

A court in Indiana, United States, sentenced a man 60 years in jail for stabbing a graduate student from to death at a gym in October 2023.

The accused was identified as 25-year-old Jordan Andrade, who will serve the sentence at the Indiana a Department of Correction for the brutal stabbing of Varun Raj Pucha from Telangana. Whether Andrade serves his sentence in a traditional prison or a mental health facility will depend on future evaluations by the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC).

The tragic incident occurred on October 29 last year at a Planet Fitness gym in Valparaiso, where Andrade attacked Pucha by stabbing him in the head with a half-serrated tactical knife while the victim was seated in a massage chair.

Pucha, who was pursuing a Master’s degree in Computer Science at Valparaiso University, died of his injuries a week later at a hospital in Fort Wayne. He was just two months away from completing his degree. His death has left the victim’s family in Telangana devastated.

The victim’s father, P. Ram Murthy, a government schoolteacher from Khammam, expressed disbelief and sorrow, struggling to comprehend why their son, who had only recently gone to the U.S. in August for his studies, was brutally attacked.