Bodies to be taken to India despite uncertainty due to wife’s dependent visa status
Ritu Jha
A father and daughter were killed in a traffic accident on January 14, the culturally significant day of Pongal, in Phoenix, Arizona.
Ramesh B. Bolla, 54, and his daughter Chaitanya Bolla, 21, had gone to pick up food from a nearby restaurant at around 7 pm, according to Venkat Kommineni, the President of Arizona Telugu Association.
Kommineni told indica the victims were exiting a private driveway near 35th Avenue and Bell Road and were attempting to make a left turn to head northbound when a southbound vehicle struck their car.
A police spokesman reported that both father and the daughter died on the spot.
Ramesh Bolla was an IT professional. Chaitanya Bolla, an only child, was a final year semester student at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, majoring in computer science and minoring in cybersecurity.
“We do not know whose fault it was but right now we are concerned about the family,” he said.
However, a report in the azfamily.com, quoted Detective Marianne Ramirez as saying that impairment and speed may have been factors in the collision.
A gofundme.com campaign to help send the bodies to India has raised about $83,000, in nine hours, it was set up his Ramesh Bolla’s friend Thirumala Rao Singamaneni. In it, he said, “this tragic incident on a Pongal day took all their hopes, happiness and dreams away.
Kommineni, said the community is working first to see how to protect the visa status of the wife, Padma Bolla, who is presently on a H4 EAD (a dependent visa tied to her husband’s H1-B), he told indica.
“The main thing what we are looking for is that if she goes back with the dead body can she come back? There is legal stuff she has to take care of. We are trying to find out how that works.”
The Gofundme link: https://www.gofundme.com/in-memory-of-ramesh-chaithanya