PostChristmas-they-got-a-Facebook-update-son-shot-in-race-attack - Indian Express

Express news service

Posted: Dec 28, 2011 at 0200 hrs IST

Pune The last thing Subhash Bidve had expected to find out on Facebook was news of his sons death. Yet, two days after sending the 23-year-old a message on the site, that is exactly what he saw complete with the detail that his son had been shot point blank in an apparent race attack in Manchester late Christmas night.

British police on Tuesday said they had arrested two white teens one 16, the other 17 one of whom had allegedly shot Anuj Bidve through the head after a very short conversation in the street.

Back in Pune, the single-storey Bidve home is silent. The family hasnt quite had the time to grieve. Subhash and wife Yogini have been too busy trying to bring Anujs body home. With the UK more or less shut for the holidays, they have had little success so far.

We have lost everything... We cannot wait two to four weeks that the police are giving us, Bidve said. He has posted a desperate plea on Anujs Facebook wall: Please help in getting Anuj Bidves dead body back to India. We appeal to all his friends...

Anuj went to the UK three months ago for a post-graduate course in microelectronics from Lancaster University. He had gone to Manchester-Salford over Christmas along with nine friends from the university.

Aditya Salunke, Anujs cousin, said that about 1.30 am, soon after the group had left a restaurant, they were stopped by two persons who asked them the time. One of Anujs friends told them the time and tried to move on since the two seemed drunk. As they stepped ahead, the boy who had asked the time whipped out a gun and fired, Salunke said.