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CHICAGO, IL — The mother of Pravin Varughese, an Indian American student of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, who died one year ago under mysterious circumstances, has said that she is upset that the state’s attorney has decided not to bring criminal charges against anyone.
According to a report, Lovely Varughese, whose 19-year-old son died in Feb. 2014, believes her son was murdered. The official cause of death was hypothermia.
The Varughese family, however, paid for a second autopsy, which suggested that Pravin was murdered.
But now they are discouraged by news that a grand jury was convened downstate, and that the Jackson County state’s attorney has decided not to bring charges.
“It makes me so sad that this is the way the justice system works here,” said Lovely. “And I feel bad that our tax money is wasted on individuals like this.”
The Varughese family filed a wrongful death suit last year against the Carbondale police, and they have added other officials as defendants.
According to a report, the Varughese family attorney, Charles Stegmeyer, said the Jackson County grand jury opted not to indict a man the family believes had something to do with Pravin’s death.
The state’s attorney, Mike Carr, contacted Stegmeyer to inform him that he will not be filing any charges against the 22-year-old driver who was last seen with Pravin moments before he ran into the woods.
The lawsuit also accuses the driver of causing the teen’s death.
The police initially said Pravin became lost after a party and froze to death in the woods near Carbondale, but his family says they have proof the teen was attacked.
A brief memorial service to mark the one-year anniversary of Pravin’s death was held recently, attended by not only family members and friends, but also by two former law enforcers, Salvatore Rastrelli and Ira Robins, who represent the Archangels of Justice.
Archangels of Justice has been investigating corruption in the judicial system and are volunteering their time probing the way the case was handled.
“There is absolutely no doubt that Pravin did not die of natural causes,” Robins said earlier. “[He] was murdered.”
“I hope we get justice,” Priya Varughese, Pravin’s sister, said. “I hope we get closure. Nothing is going to bring him back, but I hope something like this doesn’t happen to another family.”
Robins had called for newly-elected Governor Bruce Rauner to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate how the case was handled.
This story originally appeared on Hi India Live.
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