41-Year-Old Indian-Origin Man Assaulted On Washington Street Dies

An Indian-American man died earlier this week, days after he was found with life-threatening injuries following a fight outside a Washington restaurant.

Vivek Taneja, who is from Virginia, and the suspect were at two sister Japanese restaurants on February 2, a police report said. He was "was knocked to the ground by the suspect and hit his head on the pavement", Washington Posted cited a police report as saying.

This comes amid a spate of attacks on and deaths of Indians and Indian-Americans in the US.

Taneja, 41, left the restaurants around 2 am and the fight broke out on a nearby street, the police report said without describing the nature of the dispute. He lost consciousness in the attack and when the cops arrived, they found him with life threatening injuries and rushed him to a hospital.

He died from the injuries at the hospital on Wednesday, police said.

A search is on for the suspect who was seen on CCTV. He has not been identified.

The police have offered a $25,000 reward for anyone who provides information that leads to his arrest and conviction.

Earlier this week, an Indian student was left bleeding from his nose and mouth after he was attacked by robbers in Chicago. Syed Mazahir Ali, who family lives in Hyderabad, was seen in a video pleading for help following the attack.

Four other Indian-origin students were reported dead in the US this year.

Shreyas Reddy Beniger, a 19-year-old student who held an American passport, was found dead last week, but authorities had ruled out any foul play. Another student, Neel Acharya, was found dead on the Purdue University campus earlier that week, hours after his mother had reported him missing.

Vivek Saini, a 25-year-old student from Haryana, was hammered to death by a homeless man in Georgia's Lithonia on January 16. Akul Dhawan, another Indian student, was found dead outside the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in January.