NEW JERSEY (TIP): Friends of an Indian couple found dead at their New Jersey home last week have started a GoFundMe campaign to help their surviving three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Viha Rudrawar. Bodies of the couple — identified as Balaji Rudrawar, 33, and Aarti B. Rudrawar, 31 — were found inside their North Arlington apartment in Bergen County, New Jersey Wednesday. Their daughter, who was found crying in the balcony, was unharmed.
‘Contribute to Viha’s future’ fundraiser has collected over $70, 000 in less than 24 hours of starting the campaign, according to its organizer Gobind Singh Nihalani.
Nihalani said they were in the process of creating a Trust Fund for this money to be used for Viha’s well-being and her education.
They were also working with child welfare to arrange the kid’s custody to her grandparents living in the temple town of Ambajogai in Maharashtra’s Beed district, about 300 miles from Mumbai.
Rudrawar, an IT professional and his homemaker wife moved to the US in August 2015 after they got married in December 2014.
To view the GoFundMe, please visit: https://gf.me/v/c/67xy/contribute-to-vihas-future.
Balaji Rudrawar, working for Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd, and Aarti Rudrawar “were happily married and a couple of few words but many smiles,” wrote Nihalani.
“In this immensely unfortunate moment, while we all get together to pray to the almighty to rest their souls in peace, we are also starting an effort to think for the future of the small child.”
“While nobody can ever fulfill the void in Viha’s life, as friends and family, the least we can do is to come together and contribute our share towards the future of Viha,” Nihalani wrote.
“No contribution is big or small – please do whatever you can to help Viha, as that will have some financial support for the future,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the North Arlington Police Department are continuing to investigate the deaths.
Both Balaji and Aarti had suffered from multiple stab wounds, according to Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella. They believe Aarti Rudrawar died as a result of stab wounds inflicted by her husband, the prosecutor said Friday.
Balaji Ruduawar “also died as a result of multiple stab wounds, but his manner of death is undetermined pending the completion of an autopsy and investigation,” the prosecutor said in a release.
Investigators said they do not believe anyone else was involved in the deaths.
North Arlington Police responded to the Garden Terrace apartment complex after receiving a 9-1-1 call from a neighbor reporting that she looked through the mail slot in the front door of and saw two people lying on the floor in the living room area, Musella said in a release.