How a ‘murder’ in Boston that didn’t happen made national news in India

The death of a young Indian student in Massachusetts has fueled a storm of online outrage and misinformation in his native country, where lurid headlines have baselessly suggested he was murdered in Boston as part of a rising tide of anti-Indian violence in the United States.

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth student Abhijeeth Paruchuru, 20, was found dead in a car in Freetown on March 8. Massachusetts authorities believe he died by suicide. “We found significant evidence indicating that he took his own life,” Dave Procopio, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts State Police, said in an email.

“We’re investigating it as an apparent suicide and waiting to hear from the medical examiner,” Gregg Miliote, a spokesperson for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, told the Globe.