Washington Shooting Victim Had Houston Connection

By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: One of the victims of the shooting rampage that began at the Naval Sea Systems Command Headquarters building in Washington, DC has a strong connection in the Houston area, it was learnt on Monday shortly after the names of those who were killed was released.

Vishnu Pandit, 61, was best friends with Prasad Mantravadi, husband of the locally well known immigration attorney and singer Uma Mantravadi. Prasad and Vishnu were classmates and friends from Marine Engineering College in Calcutta, India, and Prasad also completed his Marine Engineering & Naval Architecture at University of Michigan with the help and advice of Vishnu. Prasad said, “He was a very loving, caring human being and always reached out to help everyone.”

Uma called in tears after she learnt the news and despite her raw emotions, said she and Prasad would be planning a vigil for Pandit and the other victims this weekend, most likely at India House.

According to the Huffington Post, Pandit was an engineer and a suburban family man who had immigrated to the US from Mumbai in the mid 1970s. He received his second undergraduate degree in marine engineering from the University of Michigan and then a master’s.

Pandit, who was also known as “Kisan”, and his wife lived on a leafy section of North Potomac, a well-to-do part of Maryland about 30 miles outside of Washington, DC and raised two boys and they had a baby granddaughter.