An investigation is under way against a police officer in Seattle, US, after bodycam footage recorded him laughing at an Indian woman fatally struck by a patrol car, according to a BBC report.

On January 23, Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old graduate student at Northeastern University’s Seattle campus, lost her life when she was struck by a police car while crossing the street.

The officer in question, identified as Daniel Auderer, had been dispatched to the crash site, as indicated in the police documents.

The following day, Auderer’s body-worn camera captured a phone call in which he could be heard discussing the incident.

“She is dead,” the officer was heard saying before laughing. “No, it’s a regular person. Yeah, just write a cheque,” he said, before laughing again, the BBC report said.

“Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway. She had limited value,” the officer was quoted as saying.

Auderer was purportedly engaged in a conversation with union president Mike Solan.

For his part, the officer has claimed that his remarks were “misconstrued” and “taken out of context”.

Earlier this week, the Seattle Police Department issued a statement revealing that the conversation came to light through an employee who had encountered it “in the routine course of business,” the BBC reported.

The employee concerned expressed apprehensions about the content of the statements and subsequently raised these concerns up the hierarchy, the report added.

Following this, authorities transferred the case to the Office of Police Accountability, the entity responsible for probing police misconduct.

“This agency is currently scrutinising the circumstances surrounding the statements and evaluating whether any policies were infringed upon,” the Seattle Police Department said.

Meanwhile, the Consulate General of India in San Francisco has called the handling of Kandula’s death “deeply troubling”.

The consulate said on X that they have contacted state and local authorities in addition to officials in Washington, demanding a “thorough investigation” and “action against those involved in this tragic case”.

Indian news website NDTV reported that the US government has assured India of a quick and fair investigation into the death of Kandula.

“Senior administration officials are believed to have assured India’s Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, that the entire incident has been taken very seriously by them,” it stated.

The NDTV report added that Seattle City Mayor Bruce Harrell has written a letter to the victim’s family, saying that the comments made by one person do not reflect the feelings of the city or the communities that call it home.

“We recognise that Jaahnavi’s death is a loss for our whole community – the loss of a young woman who had so much life ahead of her to do amazing things and share that joy with loved ones,” Harrell said in his communication to the Kandula family.