Body of Indian killed in CAR to reach Bangalore soon

The body of Krishnaiah Mogaveera, who was killed in Central African Republic (CAR), has reached Gabon and the Indian Embassy in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo is making arrangements to send it to Bangalore.

A diplomat from Indian Embassy in Kinshasa – the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo – has reached Libreville to take custody of the corpse after a French Army transported it to the capital of Gabon from the CAR. French soldiers are also providing security to about 100 Indian workers, including 10 engineers and supervisors from Karnataka, engaged in building a cement plant at Banqui, the capital of Central African Republic, where a civil war has broken in the last week.

K S Aswathanarayana, the Chief Executive Officer of Delhi-based Jaguar Overseas Limited, told Deccan Herald that the company’s employees in CAR and the cement plant it is building there have remained safe. He said the soldiers of the French Army as well as the Multinational Force of Central Africa or FOMAC – a regional stabilisation mission – had visited the plant and met the workers to assure them of safety.

Mogaveera, who hailed from Balkur in Udupi district of Karnataka, was among the two Indians killed by French soldiers at M’Poko International Airport at Banqui, CAR capital, on last Monday. He was working as an accountant in a pharmaceutical company in CAR.

The incident took place when French soldiers guarding the airport mistook a vehicle carrying some Indians and Chadian nationals as that of the soldiers loyal to the rebel leader Michel Djotodia, who dethroned President Francois Bozize in a coup on last Sunday. A Nepalese was killed and six other Indians were injured in the incident.
French troops have been guarding the airport since Saturday to foil attempts by the rebels to take over its control. France conveyed its regret to India for the tragic incident and promised to conduct a probe.

Sources in New Delhi on Wednesday said a French military aircraft had brought to Libreville the mortal remains of Mogaveera and Karna Bahadur, the deceased Nepalese citizen. Bahadur’s family, now in India, will receive his body at Chandigarh. Indian Embassy in Kinshasa had sent second secretary Pradeep Yadav to Libreville to arrange repatriation of both the corpses to India.