they just more or less started building that page, before it was pretty much non existent.

Here is the last version of the page before the guy's death:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rajeev_Motwani&...

sad

why downmod someone saying sad?

This circumstance and post is about someone passing which is sad.

Was it downmodded because it's just someone posting a quick expression of the circumstance and holds no value? It's a little snobbish here sometimes!

I don't think he is saying sad because the guy died, he is saying sad, because his wikipedia page was non-existent until he died.