UK MP Vaz meets Bidve's family; hands over 2000-pound cheque

 British member of parliament Keith Vaz today met the family members of Anuj Bidve, the engineering student from Pune who was killed in Manchester city last December, and handed over a 2000-pound cheque.

Vaz, chairman of the home affairs committee, said his India visit was aimed at "repairing relations" following Bidve's murder. He said there was the need to encourage Indian students to study in the UK for strengthening the relations between the two countries.The British lawmaker of Indian descent collected a fund of 2000 pounds in a span of five days and handed over the amount to Bidve's family during a meeting at a hotel near the international airport, a statement on his behalf said.

"Vaz is deeply concerned about Anuj's family and paid a homage to his home town as well. He will also be present during the trial to be conducted in June 2012," it added.

Incidentally, the meeting follows last night's attack on a 26-year-old Indian MBA student Praveen Reddy, who was critically stabbed in the London borough of Newham. This is the fourth attack on Indians in the last two months with earlier three incidents proving fatal.Vaz had met the Bidve family in the UK, when they had gone there to claim Anuj's body last month.

Anuj was doing an MS in microelectronics at Lancaster University, when he was killed.