Kansas Man Sentenced to Life for the 2017 Stabbing Death of Indian American Doctor Achutha Reddy

A Kansas man who stabbed his Indian American doctor to death four years ago has been sentenced to life in prison. Umar Rashid Dutt, now 25, who was a patient of Dr. Achutha Reddy, killed the psychiatric specialist near his office.

Dutt will be eligible for parole in 25 years, with credit for time served of four years. Although both Dutt’s attorneys and prosecutors said he should serve his sentence at Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility, kwch.com reports that “the ultimate decision will be left up to the Kansas Department of Corrections, not the judge.” Both parties agree Dutt has mental health issues, the report added.

Dutt pleaded guilty to the crime in September. Local news reports, citing the Sedgwick County District Attorney, said that Dutt went to Reddy’s office in 2017 “to confine Dr. Reddy and hurt him.” An office manager reportedly separated the two men, and the doctor tried to escape. Dutt pursued Reddy and followed him to an alley behind the business. According to an affidavit released by officials in October 2017, Dutt stabbed Reddy “approximately 165 times before fleeing.”

Local news media outlets including ksn.com, and kwch.com report the circumstances of the night of the murder, as detailed in the affidavit. Police were first alerted to the stabbing at 7:20 p.m. on Sept. 13, 2017. When officers arrived they found Reddy “outside of the building on the ground,” with “multiple stab wounds, blunt force trauma and seemed to have possibly been run over by a vehicle.” Reddy died from his wounds

Police later arrested Dutt in the parking lot of the Wichita Country Club.

During the hearing, Reddy’s wife Beena Reddy detailed the impact of her husband’s murder on her and her three children. “I have not been able to sleep for four years due to nightmares, when I think of the last moments of my husband’s life, I shake with fear,” she told the court, according to kwch.com. “Umar Dutt gave me a life sentence of grief and fear and misery,” she said. “This is my daily reality and it will never, ever change. I will never forgive him and I will never forget,” said Dr. Beena Reddy. “Umar Dutt deserves to go to the state penitentiary for the rest of his life.”

She said her children have been “devastated” by their father’s death. “Our stability, our security, our peace of mind, has been destroyed by the premeditated, evil actions of Umar Dutt.” She described her husband as a loving and kind man, who “cared about helping people,” including Dutt. “My husband always believed the best of people, including Umar Dutt,” she said, adding that mental illness isn’t an excuse to kill someone. “Dutt knew what he was doing.”

The Wichita Eagle ran a profile on Reddy at the time of his murder. Reddy graduated from medical school in Osmania, India in 1986. He did an internship at St. Louis University in 1994 and his residency at the Kansas University School of Medicine-Wichita in 1998. He’s practiced in Wichita for more than two decades and started with Comcare before opening his own practice in 2003.

The Medical Society of Sedgwick County stated at the time of Reddy’s murder: “The Medical Society is heartbroken over the loss of Dr. Reddy,” Denis Knight, president of the Medical Society of Sedgwick County said in the statement. “He had been a member of MSSC since 2000, and his wife, Dr. Beena Reddy, is also a member. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her. Dr. Reddy’s death is a tragic loss to our community.”