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Sketches of Indian students' murderers

December 18, 2007 03:08 IST
The task force inquiring the murder of two Indian students in Louisiana

State University -- Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma (31) and Kiran Kumar Allam (33) -- at Baton Rouge, released the sketches of two of the four suspects.

Sketch one is that of a person believed to have been the driver. He is a black male, estimated to be in his 20s. His hair was done in twists in rows. He was wearing a white hooded sweatshirt.

The second sketch is also of a black male in his 20s, possibly even over 30, 5'8"-5'10" tall, with a muscular build and a receding hairline. He was wearing a white long sleeve shirt with a high collar and dark jeans.

Investigators still consider that there were three or four suspects. They came in an older model light-colored vehicle, a Oldsmobile Alero. Police now believe that the suspects arrived as early as 2100 hours at the Edward Gay complex, where the murders were committed on the night of December 13.

They might have been in the general area or on property even earlier.

Investigators believe that the suspects were scouting for an opportunity to rob someone. They might have observed Komma arrive at the complex to visit his friend Allam, and might have followed him into latter's apartment.

Alok Pandey, First Secretary (Counselor) from the Embassy in Washington, DC, and KP Pillai, Consul from Houston, are still in Baton Rouge to help the families of the victims and students.

Family and friends of Allam and Komma gathered on Sunday at Rabenhorst Funeral Home to mourn the loss. Prasanna Desiraju, who said he had known Komma for a third of his life, said he had to leave the ceremony for a while because he was so emotional.

Komma's wife left for India on December 16 along with relatives and fiends. Parents and wife of Allam are scheduled to leave for India on December18.  The bodies will be taken to India in a day or two, Pillai said.

The university, meanwhile, is currently closed for Christmas recess.

George Goseph in New York