New York, Oct 15 (IANS): A Purdue University student, who was accused of fatally stabbing his Indian-origin roommate with a knife, has been charged with murder by the prosecutors.

Ji Min Sha, a 22-year-old cybersecurity major from Seoul, South Korea, faces one count of murder in the killing of Varun Manish Chheda, 20, from Indianapolis earlier this month.

Sha could face 45-60 years behind bars if convicted of the one count of murder. He is being held without bond.

The prosecutors alleged that Sha stabbed Chheda, a data science major, multiple times in the head and neck with a folding knife that officers found on the floor near the chair where Chheda's body was discovered, according to the Journal & Courier in Lafayette, Indiana.

When the officers arrived at the scene on the West Lafayette campus in Indiana on October 5, they found Chheda dead in a chair with the knife on the floor near him, reports said.

The cops found Sha wearing clothes with blood on them before he was arrested, prosecutors were reported as saying.

Making his first court appearance last week before Tippecanoe County Magistrate Sarah Wyatt, Sha claimed "I was blackmailed" when asked why he killed Chheda, but did not elaborate further, according to local reports.

He also said he was "very sorry" when asked if he had anything to tell the victim's family.