India's 59th Republic Day turned into a day of mourning for relatives of 29-year-old Abhijit Mahato, the Indian doctoral student who was killed in the US, as his body arrived here on Saturday.

Abhijit’s relatives, along with a Jharkhand government official, received the body at the Birsa Munda airport in the afternoon, eight days after it was found in his apartment near Duke University at Durham, North Carolina.

In a special ambulance, arranged by the Jharkhand government, the body was taken to Abhijit’s native village Gamaharia, situated between Seraikela and Kharsawa. Prabhu Narayan Mahato, the government official who was with the relatives when they received the body, said: “Deputy Chief Minister Sudhir Mahato will be present at the funeral of Abhijit.”
“Jharkhand has met the expenses of bringing the body home.”