Thousands of Pune citizens braved the cold to join the family and relatives of Anuj Bidve, an Indian student slain in Britain, at his last rites conducted on Saturday evening.
Hundreds of people, including Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Council Vinod Tawdethe of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar and Pune MP Girish Bapat, earlier visited the Bidve residence at Wadgaonsheri.
Bidve’s body, lying in a flower bedecked open coffin, was taken in a procession to the nearby Yerawada Muktidham crematorium and consigned to flames, amid chanting of vedic hymns, before several thousand mourners. On Saturday afternoon, his grieving parents returned with his body from Britain to Mumbai, and then to their home town Pune.
Anuj, 23, an engineering student was shot dead on December 26 in the British city of Salford.
He was shot from point blank range while walking along Ordsall Lane along with his friend, creating a furore in Britain and India.
Anuj’s parents left for Britain with them to collect his body and returned on Saturday for the last rites.
(Published 07 January 2012, 11:36 IST)