Motwani was found dead in his pool in the backyard in his Atherton home on June 5, 2009, after apparently falling in, but the cause of death is not certain.

Motwani, and his wife Asha Jadeja, had two daughters named Naitri and Anya

Rajeev Motwani, a Stanford University professor who advised the founders of search engine giant Google in their college days, has been found dead at his home in California.

He was an early advisor and supporter of companies including Google and PayPal, and a special advisor to Sequoia Capital. He was a winner of the Gödel Prize in 2001.

Prior to his involvement with Google, Motwani founded the Mining Data at Stanford project (MIDAS), an umbrella organization for several groups looking into new and innovative data management concepts. His research included data privacy, web search, robotics, and computational drug design.